Tropentag, October 6 - 8, 2009 in Hamburg "Biophysical and Socio-economic Frame Conditions for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources"

The Role of Environmental Education in Sustainable Management of Natural Resources: Insights from the São Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve, Brazil

¹University Sao Francisco, Environmental Technology Management, Brazil
²TU Dortmund, Germany / Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana / UNICAMP, Brazil, Geography, Germany

Abstract

UNESCO's MAB Programme main aim is the improvement of the relationship between man and the environment within the natural resources management framework. According to MAB, the programme proposes an interdisciplinary research agenda and capacity building that targets the ecological, social and economic dimensions of biodiversity loss. MAB Programme considers population altogether with the safeguard of natural resources in the frame of Biosphere Reserves. The MAB Programme is based on an international network for knowledge sharing, research and monitoring, education and training, and participatory decision-making. In this regard the current research presents the discussion about the environmental education's role as a dialogue platform for the promotion of Biosphere Reserves management towards a sustainable development. The case study involves Sao Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve (RBCV), located within Mata Atlântica Biosphere Reserve, in Brazil. The RBCV was approved by UNESCO in 1994 and it covers 1 611 710 ha along 73 Municipalities. Peculiarly it is traced within a national important urban centre network, as a strategy to safeguard fragments of biodiversity left by devastating developmental processes. The results about the role of the Education in a participatory management of natural Resources, in the frame of Biosphere Reserve Management, are based in a dialog process happened in a meeting among different professionals working in the context of Environmental Education from all around the world. The main results of these analysis were: (1) policy recommendations to a more effective Natural Resources management must be based in a participatory learning process that must include all actors within the Biosphere Reserves, all levels of research an effective communication as precondition and; (2) in the study case a dialog process was established to face the main current problem target: the recognition of a local park as core zone of the RBCV.

Keywords: Biosphere reserves, environmental education, natural resource management

Contact Address: Herta Viegas, University Sao Francisco, Environmental Technology Management, R. Dr. Joao Quirino Do Nascimento 1405 Apt. 11, 13091516 Campinas, Brazil, e-mail: herta.viegasbomjesus.br