Local and global environmental education: public policies and participation in Fernando de Noronha

Abstract

This article seeks to analyse factors that may foster, hinder or increase environmental social participation and environmental education (EE) on the Island of Fernando de Noronha - Pernambuco / Brazil. The role of public policies in fostering a culture of democratic procedures aimed for building sustainable societies is another aim in this study. The relationships between research and experimentation in EE are the basis for this analysis. A survey provided a better understanding of the local reality and offered opportunities for the dialogues maturation focused on the definition of principles and initiatives that can contribute to the cycle of public policies formulation and implementation for EE.  This was a qualitative research-intervention carried out with a conservationist institution, which operates in the field of EE. It dialogues with ethnographic research in the field of education and used as techniques of data collection: analysis of official documents, participant observation, music and semi-structured interviews.  The analysis of the fieldwork were enhanced by other experiences of the Laboratory of Education and Environmental Policy (Oca) of the University of São Paulo and showed the need for public policies able to provide a permanent, continuous and articulated EE with the population of each territorial group. It also indicates some possible ways for that betting on the centrality of dialogical participation which articulates initiatives through an interinstitutional pedagogical political project.