Geografia e Educação Ambiental: o papel da educação geográfica na formação do voluntariado ambiental na zona oeste do Rio de Janeiro/ RJ

Abstract

This work started with the concern of environmental problems that the world has witnessed currently. Mainly, due to the ones occurring from the detachment of the immediate environment to the daily life of the urban and peripheral populations that, throughout the history of the geographic space construction, have been kept out of society ’s decision power about its place in this space. In the City of Rio de Janeiro the population of neighborhoods, such as Planning Area 5 (AP-5), clipping of this research, had been exposed to several changes of the social-spatial formation model which most of the time did not favor the interests of the local population and it made them inherit the social, economic and environmental liabilities of the decisions taken by default. Examining the methods of teaching environmental education in the current Brazilian society, we come across the fundamental role of Geography, mainly in the socio-environmental strand, and its teaching, present in the formal education of all Brazilians who had been exposed to the basic education, for the appropriation of the criticality in the society and nature relations. The study reflects on the geography education offered to the population of the AP-5, pointing out that the area has influence both in the knowledge and local experiences and the received formalized and formatted education by national educational curriculum. Besides possessing a still considerable capital of ecosystemic resources, which is an important tool in the conservation, preservation, and sustainability of the city of Rio de Janeiro, having considerable portion of the population contingent of the city, which makes the way they perceive the received education and the environmental practices performed by the environmental volunteers be important for making a decision for the entire city. Developed for better analysis and knowledge of the teaching of Geography and its relationship with the environmental education and community actions directed towards the environment carried through in the AP-5. This research brings up the discussion involving the socio-environmental educational issue of the educational public politics. The local knowledge and the clash between speech and actions. Therefore, it is believed that the geography education is a relevant strategy of change, and it can provide healthy life quality for the society, a hopeful objective change of environment rationality.