Percepção ambiental na comunidade Arara em Teixeira de Freitas (BA)

Abstract

Environmental perception has become a fundamental operational concept for understanding the relationships between human beings and nature. Therefore, a necessary tool for the development and proposition of different intervention actions based on understanding situated of these relationships within the Territories of Identity and the singularities of their populations. Therefore, the present research has the general objective to investigate the perception environment of the residents of Arara, a rural community from Teixeir in Bahia, notably, in the relationship between different generations and the consideration of external pressures on the community. This study is based on the literature on environmental perception, within the scope of Theory of Social Representations and the discussion about environmental perception in rural communities. In addition, it makes use of the concepts of territory, valued landscape and topophilia, coming from humanist geography, as a way of establishing inferences about the representations of the research subjects. Methodologically, strategies are used qualitative data collection, namely: a) semi-structured interviews and informal conversations with older residents of the community; b) realization of workshops for the production of drawings with children; c) use of questionnaires and conversation circles with adolescents; beyond the use of field diaries to record observations and visits made. the employment of multi-methods allowed us to determine that: a) certain memories emerge as awareness triggers in preserving the community's environmental resources; b) there is verification, on the part of some older residents, of the low participation of young people in the process of preservation and care related to the region's natural resources; c) the growth of eucalyptus planting is quite negative, due to significant changes in the environmental environment and in the behavior of the community; d) there is no job effective awareness of children, neither in the family space, nor in the school space, regarding the characteristics of the fauna and flora of the region and, finally, e) the absence of the State with public policies aimed at the environmental, productive and educational needs of the community as a whol