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Bruan, RicardoEnvironmental Education and Training in Brazil.Discussion Paper No. 84.International Labour Office, Geneva (Switzerland).ISBN-92-2-108709-392

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International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22,Switierland.Reports Research/Technical (143)

MF01/PC05 Plus Postage.Adult Edu'ation; *Ecology; Elementary SecondaryEducation; *Environmental Education; *FederalGovernment; Foreign Countries; Higher Education;Institutes (Training Programs); *ProfessionalTraining; Public Agencies; State Agencies; StateUniversities; Surveys; *Vocational Education*Brazil; Environmental Issues; *EnvironmentalManagement; Environmental Protection; GovernmentRegulation

Brazilian environmental education and trainingexperience is recent but has a concrete base'of generating awarenessamong all levels of the population and also aims to trair. people toprotect, control and manage the use of environmental resources.Several visits were made by the author to organizations, enterprisesand institutions from federal, state and municipal governments thatare directly and indirectly involved with environmental affairs.Contacts were also made with non governmental organizations (NG0s)and private envilonmental initiatives to analyze and comparealternative paths in the Brazilian environmental education andtraining process. This study surveyed the institutions dealingdirectly or indirectly with environmental concerns of the Brazilianstates of Minas Gerais, Parana, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul,and Sao Paulois including the Federal District of Brasilia. Theinstitutions were mainly environmental agencies, federaluniversities, state or federally-owned enterprises, research andscientific financing agencies, schools, research centers, andalternative initiatives. The report is organized in seven chapterscontaining a description of activities developed by the organizationsincluding illustrative schemes and drawings, statistical data andconcluding remarks. (Author/MDH)

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Environmental educationand training in Brazilby Ricardo Braun

Training Policies Branch

International Labour Office Geneva

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONOffice of Educational Research and Improvement

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Discussion Paper No. 84

Environmental education and trainingin Brazil

by Ricardo Braun

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Introduction

Environmental protection in Brazil is a source of mounting world-wide concern. It is a complex issue,involving the preservation of unique ecosystems not only in Amazonia but also in representative areasaround the country. This includes native Indian tribes whose homes are often located in these areasand the global warming trend which results in part from the reduction in the world's forest.

Brazil, as a developing country, has experienced rapid industrialisation, urban centre expansion, andunplanned use of natural resources which have degraded the environment. This has brought publiccriticism not only in Brazil but also abroad.

In its National Development plan (1986-1989), the Brazilian Government declared the environmentvitally important. Guide-lines were set forth for the First National Plan for the Environment.A NationalPolicy for the environment was created, but has not been put into practice. Most environmental agencieswere only created in the past decade and are just beginning to develop the strategy and political backingnecessary to implement an effective policy.

The promulgation of the new Constitution in October 1988 and the National Environment Policy(PNMA) in 1981 brought into effect some of the world's most advanced environmental protectionlegislation. However, in the face of economic difficulties and multiple political and institutional changes,effective enforcement of environmental regulations is not yet satisfactory.

Tra ining of professionals to work in environmental affairs in Brazil is recent. The environmental trainingprocess began in the 1980's, after the government established the above mentioned Policy. This policylimited the use of environmental resources and created a series of laws, norms and regulations on air,iva ter and soil pollution control, preservation of environmentally sensitive areas and environmentalmanagement. This procedure created a dual demand in the new environmental labour market. The firstwas from state organisations that have to co-ordinate and execute state environmental legislation. Thesecond was from the private firms and enterprises that have to adapt their production process to morestringent norms.

The great demand for specialised professionals in the environmental field caused some difficulty indesigning a new environmental education and training system in the counny. Previously, trainingactivities were all structured for specific areas and problems. Today environmental training is multidis-ciplinary including, for instance, engineering, economics, sociology, anthropologi4 geology, geography,biolv; technology and other areas.

At the inception of the environmental education process in the country, there was a need to develop astrategy to re-orientate the existing education and research system towards environmental issues. Thisis currently being done by creating multidisciplinary environmental consciousness in primary andsecondary schools. including technical schools, universities and research institutions.

This process is being sponsored by the Government with universities and international organisationssuch as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations DevelopmentProgra mme ( (.1 ND P

The main results oft/us co-operation have been the following:

'development of an epistemology regarding the main environmental problems in Brazil;

creation of environmental ( multidisciplinary ) cent-es in universities and research ccitresin Brazil;

developnient of professional environment control training centres;

developnient of a critical environmental group of professionals with master and doctoratedegrees in universities and government agencies.

For this study, lack of time has made it impossible to survey more than the most economically developed

States in Brazil. However, it includes some very important environmental education and training

experiences in the Amazonian region, which involve several less developed states in the country

The Brazilian sta tes surveyed were Minas Gerais, Parana, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and Sao

Paulo including the Federal District ofBrasilia, in which several visits were made to institutions dealing

directly (or indirectly) with environmental concerns. These were mainly environmental agencies,federal

universities, state or federally-owned enterprises, research and scientific financing agencies, schools,

research centres and alternative initiatives such as non-governmental organisations (NGO's) and

private enterprises.

A general description of the activities developed by the above mentionedinstitutions including statistical

data, constraints in developingenvironmental education and training activities and concluding remarks

are stated in the coming chapters of this report.

Contents

Introduction iii

Acknowledg ements ix

Abstract xii

I. Environmental education and training at the federal level 1

A. CONAMAs resolutions 2

B. Brazilian Institute for the Environment and NaturalResources IBAMA 2

C. Conclusions 9

H. State environmental secretarials 11

A State Environment Secretariat - SMA of Sao Paulo State 11

B. Company for technological development and pollutioncontrol - CETESB 14

C. State Environmental Engineering Foundation - FEEMA 18

D. State Forest Institute Foundation - IEF 20

E. Foundation for public parks and gardens 22

F. The forest police 22

G. Secretariat for urban development and the environmentSEDU of Parand State 12

H. Superintendence for Water Resources and theEnvironment SUREHMA 23

I. State Environment Secretariat - SMMA of Minas Gerais

J. State Environment Foundation FEAM 27

K. State Environment Protection Foundation - FEPAM 28

L. Environment Science and Technology Secretariat - SEMANTEC 30

M. Conclusions 32

Ill. Environmental training in universities 34

A. Federal Univerisity of Rio De Janeiro UFRJ 34

B. University of Sao Paulo - USP 36

C. University of Brasilia - UNB 37

D. Forestry School of the Federal Univerisity of Parand - UFPa 38

E. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - UFRS 40

F. Rural economy 40

G. Federal University of Mato Grosso - UFMT 41

H. Federal University of Viçosa - UFV 42

I. Federal Fluminesc University - UFF 42

J. Federal Rural University of Rio de Janerio UFRRJ 42

K. University Souza Marques - Y1ESM 43

L. Mackenzie University 43

M. Federal University of Minas Gerais - UFMG 43

N. Science and technology plan for the Amazon Region 1990/91 43

0. Northern Post-Graduate Project - PNOPG 44

P. Conclusions 44

IV. Scientific and research financing agencies 46

A. Statistics from the National Scientific Research Council -CNPq 46

B. Training programme on strategic areas RHAE 47

C. Project financing agency - FINEP 49

D. UNDP-Brazil: Projects related to protection of theenvironment 50

E. Conclusions

V. Government enterprises 53

A. ELETROBRAS 53

B. PETROBRAS 55

C. Angra Nuclear Power Station - FURNAS 57

D. National Nuclear Energy Commission - CNEN 59

E. Brazilian Agriculture Research Enterprise - EMBRAPA 62

F. Technical Assistance and Rural Organisation - EMATER-MG 64

G. Conclusions 67

VI. Vocational training and the environment 69

A. SENA1 69

B. Workers' organisations 76

C. Environmental labour training at the municipal level 77

D. Conclusions 78

VII. Alternative environmental education and training 80

A. Chico Mendes Memorial 80

B. Institute for Amazonian Studies - TEA 81

C. Health and happiness project - A community experience inthe Amazon Region 83

D. Society for the Preservation of Natural and CulturalResources of the Amazon Region - SOPREM 87

E. Environmental Association of Araruama Lagoon Region - AMARLA 87

F. Brazilian Institute for Environmental Studies - Pro-NATURA 88

G. Cultural and Radio Dissemination Foundation - TV Buzios 89

H. Religiously linked environment education project 92

1. Alternex computer communication network 92

J. Agricultural colony prison of Mariante Municipality 93

K. Conclusions 94

VII. Final conclusions 95

NOTES 99

BIBLIOGRAPHY 100

ANNEXES 104

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank all those people who provided relevant information and materials in theorganisations visited for the preparation of this document. He would also like to thank his friends andfamily in providing facilities and accommodation during his stay in several Brazilian states.

The views and opinions expressed in this document as well as any misinteipretations or errors, are solelythe responsibility of the author.

Abstract

Brazilian environmental education and training experience is recent hut has a concrete base of not onlygenerating awareness amongst all levels of the population but also aims to train people to protect, controland manage the use of erwtronmental resources.

Several visits were made to organisations, enterprises and institutions from the Federalstate andmunicipal governments, directly and indirectly, involved with envimnmental affairs. Contacts were alsomade with non governmental organisations-NGO's and private environmental initiatives to analyseand complare alternative paths in the Brazilian environmental education and training process.

This study is organised in seven chapters containing a description of activities developed by the abovementiond organisations including illustrative schemes and drawings, statistical data and concludingremarks.

Li

I. Environmental education and training at thefederal level

This chapter describes environmental educa-tion and training activities developed by someorganisations working at the federal level.These are mainly the Brazilian Institute forNatural Resources and the Environment(IBAMA), thc former Federal EnvironmentAgency (SEMA), thc Ministry of Education(MEC) and sonic of thc National EnvironmentCouncil (CONAMA) resolutions.

Environmental education in municipal schoolsis also mentioned in this chapter for a betterunderstanding of the federal, state andmunicipal levels in the Brazilian education sys-tem.

The evolution of environmental resourcesmanagement in Brazil led to thc introductionof the National Environment Policy (PNMA),through which the National EnvironmentalSystem (SISNIMA) was created. This systemcomprises the following authorities and institu-tions:

Hit !hest authority: The National En-vironment Council ( CONAMA),responsible for assisting the Presidentin the formulation of guidelines forPNMA.

Central authority: The Brazilian In-stitute for Environment and Renew-able Natural Resources (IBAMA),which is in charTe of promoting. con-trollint; and evaluating the introduc-tion of the PNMA.

Sectoral organisations: Organisationsor institutions directly or indirectlyconnected to the Federal Public Ad-ministration as well as foundations in-stituted by public law associated with

the preservation of environmentalquality.

Sectional organisations: State or-ganisations or institutions in charge ofcarrying out programmes and projectsto control the environment. They arealso in charge of developing monitor-ing activities and formulating Stateregulations to maintain environmen-tal quality.

Local organisations: Municipal en-tities responsible for controlling theenvironment.

Five years aftcr the National EnvironmentPolicy had been implemented, a review of theconstraints in developing environmentaleducation programmes was possible. Thesewere mainly the low priority afforded by thegovernment to this sector, lack of coverage ofenvironmental education in the nationaldevelopment process and lack of definition bythe government regarding the conception, im-plementation, co-ordination and evaluation ofenvironmental education projects.

Until 1985 environmental education was notconsidered a priority by the government be-cause it was recognised as a confusing diverseprocess. In some cases environmental educa-tion was known as ecology. mainly at theprimary and secondary school levels. In othercases it was known as social communication,training or even community development. Thismade it difficult to analyse and evaluate anyexisting concrete results in the country.

A. CONAMA's resolutions

CONAMA has drafted some Resolutions tostrengthen the National Environmental Policyand in 1983 the first Resolution on Environ-mental Education came into force covering thefollowing points:

identification of opportunities to traintechnical staff from environmental or-ganisations;

promotion of national programmesand projects on environmental educa-tion;

promoting training events for ex-change of experience and know-howbetween State authorities and institu-tions.

The Resolution also stated that State environ-mental authorities and institutions should con-sider the following points:

developing environmental educationprojects;

developing environmental trainingpolicies;

participatina in national environmen-tal education plans and projects;

developing surveys to identify trainingneeds for the technical staff of en-vironmental entities;

giving technical support to local -municipal organs.

The SILENCE progranmie

In 1990 CONAMA passed Resolution No. 02implementing the Silence Proi.:camme whichseeks to educate and train the population innoise pollution control. This was done bydeveloping several technical courses on thesubject.

In order to promote the programme severalpoints were established. The first was todevelop training courses in all State environ-mental organizations including certain rele-vant municipalities; second, to disseminateinformation through all manner of means ofcommunication; third, to incorporate noisepollution in all secondary schools through anational education programme; fourth, tostimulate the industrial sector to producemachines, motors and equipment with lessnoise and vibrations; fifth, to develop conven-tions and contracts with various organizationsand training institutions to execute theProgramme throughout the country and, lastbut not least, to stimulate training programmeswithin the armed forces.

B. Brazilian Institute for theEnvironment and Natural Resources-

IBAMA

The Brazilian Institute for the Environmentand Natural Renewable Resources-IBAMAwas created in 1990 to execute the environ-mental policy established by Law No. 8.028. Itis a recent fusion of four former organizations:the Brazilian Institute for Forestry-IBDF, theFishery Development Organization SUDEPE,the federal environment Agency-SEMA andthe Rubber Tappers Association.

IBAMA is currently undergoing a reorganisa-tion to establish functional division com-patible with it's new structure, policy andpower.

Courses developed by IBAMA

IBAMA has concentrated efforts in executinga training policy not only for the oruniza lionbut also to strengthen the less technicallycapable Statc Environment Organization inthe country. See Anncx 1(a) for details of cour-ses carried out by IBAMA.

i 3

2

External training activities

IBAMA has created a Human ResourceDevelopment Division - DIDER, responsiblefor formulating training policies for the institu-tion. It is also responsible for identifying andstructuring training activities on the preserva-tion, conservation, control and taxation of en-vironmental resources.

DIDER provided 71 public courses directly (orindirectly) related to environmental topics inthe period from January to August 1990. Thesecourses were offered by both national and in-ternational private organizations.

IBAMA has 28 employees participating inpost-graduate (master and doctorate) coursesof which 13 are studying at national universitiesand 15 at universities abroad in Canada, Ger-many, Japan and thc United Kingdom.

Training perspectives

DIDER is planning to train around 1.200people in the next three years, through 29 cour-ses and nine seminars.

The identification of training needs has beencarried out by a systematic survey throughoutIBAMAs divisions. This survey helped estab-lish priorities for certain environmental sub-jects mentioned in Section (b) of Annex 1.

Environmental education affairs

IBAMA has an Environmental EducationDivision-DIED that is developing a number ofactivities such as training technicians in en-vironmental management. supporting environ-mental education programmes in thc formalteaching system, supporting environmentaleducation schemes with local communities,developing environmental education activitiesregarding the PNMA and Indian communities-PMACI.

IBAMA believes that environmental educa-tion is not an isolated process and should beestablished as a non-formal option in publicschools. It also considers the establishment ofenvironmental education as a necessary multi-disciplinary subject adapted to the local Bra-zilian situation. The main idea is to transfer thepositive experience gained in developedregions to less developed Brazilian regions,since they normally have less access to com-munication and other facilities (eg. from thesouthern part of the country to the Amazonregion).

Training developed (or supported by) DIED

Specialisation Course on Environ-mental Education developed at theFederal University of Mato Grosso -UFMTThe course is described in Chapter VIof this report.

Training Course on EnvironmentalEducationThis course was specifically designedfor IBAMAs technical staff. It wasstructured for a multidisciplinaryteam of participants such as biologists,engineers, veterinary surgeons, socio-logists. psychologists and other areas.Thirty five participants attended thecourse, nine from IBAMAs head-quarters in Brasilia and the rest fromeach of the 27 State agencies IBAMAhas in Brazil. The duration of thecourse was 80 hours/class, with themain objective of providing par-ticipants with environmental educa-tion techniques to be applied in futureenvironmental projects designed byIBAMA.

2nd Course on Environmental Educa-tion and TrainingThis course was exclusively designedfor IBAMAs staff

First Training Course on Environ-mental Education for NGO's

5th Specialisation Course on En-vironmental Education

Training constraints

Regarding environmental training as a wholethe lack of financial resources has affected theimplementation of most of the training ac-tivities planned by IBAMA for the future. Forinstance the courses planned to be developedin 1991 represent only one fifth of all trainingactivities initially proposed by the institution.

Difficulties identified regarding the implemen-tation of environmental education program-mes are mainly lack of integration between theformal education system and the new environ-mental education process. This happens mostlyat the college and primary and secondaryschools levels.

Environmental education, training andreseerch at the ecological

stations

Before IBAMA was created in 1990, thecentral authority for SISNAMA was theFederal Environment Agency - SEMA whichhad developed several environmental educa-tion and training activities covering three basicpoints:

Technical training: to train high leveltechnicians to participate in environ-mental activities developed by SIS-NAMA organizations.

Formal education: to implement en-vironmental subjects into school cur-ricula.

Community education: to implementenvironmental information actionand stimulate local community par-ticipation in environmental protec-tion.

The ecoloaical stations programme wascreated to protect representative natural en-vironments in Brazil. These stations have in-frastructures for accommodation andlaboratory research for national and interna-tional university students and scientists.

The stations arc permanently preserved andprotected in order for students and researchersto make comparative ecological-social studies

between the protected ecosystems and sur-rounding, normally non-protected areas. Theyarc also used as training laboratories forgraduate students.

In 1982 an environmental educationproaramme was launched by SEMA and theBrazilian Teaching Movement to Read andWrite-MOBRAL, sponsored by the Mincstn, ofEducation-MEC. This programme was located

4

beside some representative ecological stationsin the Amazon region. The main objective ofthe programme was to create conditions foreffective participation of local communities inthe preservation and conservation of the en-vironment.

The training materials used in this project weremainly folders, posters, audio-visual and filmsthat 2 technicians from SEMA and 11 fromMOBRAL used on the project.

Tl'e project formed groups of people to co-or-dinate other groups in environmental com-munity activities . The groups were trained towork with "environmental perception" techni-ques in order to plan and orientate practicalaction in the field.

It was also planned to transfer the experiencefrom the project to other representativeecological stations.

1BrazilianConstitution

Norms from theNational EducationCouncil

Ministry of Education-MEC

The new Brazilian Constitution] mentions newdirectives for the education system. This hasdirectly influenced the Ministry of Education -MEC, which co-ordinates implemention of theNational Education Policy.

MEC is supported by the National EducationCouncil, which is in charge of developingnorms and regulations for all levels of educa-tion in the country.

At state level, the education secretaries, basedon the above mentioned policy, are theauthorities responsible for implementingspecific regulations for the state and municipaleducation system as seen below:

Ministryof

Education

FL. FL FL1State Secretaries of Education

Environmental education in Brazil began inthc 1970's hut in a very modest way. In l 979/80the Ministry of Agriculture requested MEC to

develop an environmental educationprogramme for schools in the southern part ofthe country due to growing environmental

problems (eg. soil erosion and desertification)caused by poor agricultural practices. After therequest was made, MEC began to rethink theexisting school curriculum in which ecologywas the main environmental related subject.The process of implementing environmentaleducation as a multidisciplinary subject inschools had begun, but still took some time tobecome what is now officially established bythe government.

What MEC considers as environmentaleducation

It is educational action designed to enhanceunderstanding of ecosystem dynamics, con-sidering the effects (or consequences) of therelationship between human beings and na-ture.

MEC's basic aim is on the one hand, to preparepeople at all levels of education to interactharmoniously with the environment and on theother hand, to generate a critical view of theirrole in exploiting environmental resources.

MEC's efforts are also to ensure that teachers,students, technical and administrative sectorsin schools are interacting efficiently about en-vironmental education. Teachers should pro-vide the students with a multidisciplinary viewof the environment, integrating several sub-jects.

Last but not least. MEC seeks to form futurecitizens who are not only capable of living inharmonv with the environment. but also ofdeveloping action to improve it. For this reasonit has stimulated the development of program-mes to enforce the relationship betweenschools and the community in practical actionsuch as tree planting. waste recycling, and otherenvironmental activities.

Constraints in the environmental educationprocess

Although MEC has several objectives regard-ing the development of general educationalprogrammes in the country there have beensome critical bottlenecks that should be con-sidered. For instance, in the 60 years of MEC'sexistence there have been 59 ministers, whoalmost always had new plans and programmesfor the Brazilian education system. This hasalso happened at the state and municipal levelsdue to constant changes in the government.

The other point has been a refrain of manyeducational programmes which have sufferedfrom lack of financial resources due to theeconomic difficulties faced by the governmentin recent years. Many good educationalprogrammes have been halted due to otherpriorities established by the government.

The implementation of MEC's environmentaleducation strategies at the state and municipallevels has to be done smoothly and graduallyotherwise there is normally a rejection fromeducation secretaries on ministry's "packages".

MEC's aims for the next years

MEC's basic aims for environmental educationare the following:

reach all primary and secondaryschool students by 1994

support and stimulate research on en-vironmental education methodo-logies

support the development of post-uaduate courses on environmentaleducation

Our nature programme

This programme is proposed for the Amazonregion involving 11 states: Arnapd, Acre,Amazonas, Maranhao, Mato Grosso, MatoGrosso do Sul, Pará, Rondonia, Roraima andTocantins. It was designed to last 12 years,which corresponds to the time taken for a stu-dent to begin in the primary school and end ata university.

The programme is headed by MEC and is sup-ported by several other organizations such asthe Brazilian Institute for Natural Resourcesand Environment-IBAMA, National Tele-vision Foundation-FUNTEVE and the Bra-zilian Radio Network-RADIOBRAS.

The main thrust of the project is to focus onsolutions to environmental and social problemsin the Amazon. The programme was sub-divided in 7 sub-projects: 1. forest cover, 2.mining, 3. legislation, 4. environmental educa-tion, 5. infrastructure, 6. indigenous groups and

7. local population. These sub-programmeswill be developed at the primary and secondaryschool levels as well as at universities by sup-porting the development of post-graduatecourses in environmental education.

Environmental education at the municipallevel

The Ministry of Education is responsible forestablishing the (general) minimum cur-riculum for municipal and private schools. TheState Education Council then elaborates anadapted version, according to the social andeconomic situation of the state. However, atthe municipal level, education secretaries havetwo options. They may develop a scholarshipcurriculum for municipal schools, based on thatdeveloped by the state secretary or simply im-plement the state curriculum with no changes.The institutional framework for the education-al system is seen below:

State EducationCouncil

MunicipalEducationSecretary

[tiMunicipal Schools

Afunicipal educ.:tion secretary of Petropolis

The Municipal Education Secretary ofPetrópolis (a town located 50 km from Rio deJaneiro with around 80,000 inhabitants), im-plemented Law no. 4.258 in 1984 establishingecology as an obligatory subject in the 5th and

7th grades of the municipal school network.Thc schools arc give one class a week cor-responding to 72 hours per year, for both urbanand rural schools.

Besides ecology classes the schools not onlypromote special events during the environ-

ment week (specially on the 5th ofJune: Inter-national Environment Day), but also the wholeyear long. For instance some of the environ-mental events developed by schools are treeplanting activites on the Tree Day, develop-ment of a medicinal plant project, a waste recy-cling project, science fair, celebration of theIndian day, organic fertilizers for plants andother events.

There are also specially developed program-mes for the rural areas such as setting upvegetable gardens with the participation andhelp from farmers and parents.

Transference of practical ideas from one schoolto another has been developed through stu-dent visits and the participation of schoolteachers in training events to learn new en-vironmental techniques (eg. application ofnatural fertilizers in school gardens).

Case study from Parand State

The government of Parang decided to becomean ecological state. For this and other reasonsa very interesting environmental educationproject was developed in some municipalprimary and secondary schools.

The project was developed in three stages. Inthe first the students developed severalvegetable gardens and landscape designprojects inside and around the school area withthe help of the science teachers.

The second stage consisted in developing thesegardens into public parks. Based on the ex-perience gained in the second stage, the stu-dents were able to develop reforestation andlandscape gardening of &gradated river bedarcas, as seen in the scheme below:

river beds

know how

Municipal council (if iTaial do Cabo

The representative of the Brazilian GreenParty-PV from the Municipal Council of Ar-raial do Cabo ( a small town also located in theState of Rio de Janeiro ). developed Law num-ber 056-90 of 1904140. implementing the in-

!usion of environmental education in allmunicipal schools.

The law established that the municipal schoolnetwork should implement environmentaleducation into all environmentally related sub-

jects such as geography, health, science andothers.

The Law has not yet been implemented due tolack of human and financial resources andmaterials (eg. special books, folders, postersand other materials) on environmental educa-tion. But some schools such as the PrimaryIntegral Teaching Centre-CIEP have been im-provising environmental education activities inscience classes and out-door environmental ac-tivities.

Case study from Rio Grande do Sul State

As of April 1991 several municipal school stu-dents from Porto Alegre city (capital of theState), started to learn how to develop biologi-cal vegetable gardens, raise domestic animalswith natural food and separate domestic wastefor compost and materials recycling for in-dustry.

The project was orQanised by the EnvironmentState Secretariat-SMAM especially forprimary school students. It also includesecological walks and participation in conferen-ces on air, water and soil pollution in the state.

C. Conclusions

Environmental education in Brazil isquite recent. Until 1985 it was not apriority because it was considered toodiverse and confusina. The newBrazilian Constitution of 198$ statedthat "environmental education shouldbe promoted in all levels of educationand public awareness in order topreserve the environment". Today thepicture is different, several environ-mental education programmes andprojects have been developed by thefederal. state and municipal govern-ments. including activities imple-mented by NGO's.

CONAMA has implemented resolu-tions for developing environmentaleducation and training activities forSISNAMA such as the Silence pro-gramme on noise pollution controlwhich established training courses forall state environmental organizationsincluding the armed forces.

IBAMA is a recent fusion of fourformer governmental organizations:SEMA, IBDF, SUDEPE and theRubber Tappers Association, there-fore it is still in the process of plan-ning, administrating and organizingit's new structure.

IBAMA has created an environmen-tal education division which hasdeveloped several training courses totrain and inform people about en-vironmental education methodolo-des and techniques. As an exceptionto Brazilian governmental decisions,it has continued to carry out trainingprogrammes formerly developed bySEMA.

According to IBAMA, the main dif-ficulty in setting up environmentaleducation schemes in schools hasbeen a tack of integration between theformal education system and the newenvironmental education process.

MEC affirms that the environmentaleducation process in Brazil began inthe last decade and is now being im-plemented at all levels of education.Environmental education in schoolsrepresents the initial steps in awaken-ing children's consciousness to en-vironmental issues and Reneratinainterest for future occupations. Theenvironmental education process hasbeen working best with students from6 to 12 years 6:d. After that they arenormally more interested in otherthings and less in the school.

Another critical point has been a lackof financial resources to carry onseveral environmental education

programmes, but once they havefinancial support the next step hasbeen normally to convince the educa-tion secretaries and councils to intro-duce these programmes at the statelevel. There have been rejectionsfrom the states which consider thetraining "packages" unsuitable fortheir particular situation.

Although there have been major con-straints, as mentioned above, indeveloping environmental educationactivities in the country, they have notrestrained MEC from setting basicaims for the future. These aims mainlyprovide environmental education forall primary and secondary schools inthe country by 1994, doing research

into new environmental educationmethodologies and developing post-graduate courses on the subject.

Many municipal schools have beenimplementing several environmentaleducation events and creating innova-tive solutions to overcome low finan-cial support from the government. Forinstance by developing practical en-vironmental out-door classes, trans-fering practical ideas from one schoolto another in the same municipality,using practical knowledge from ruralpeople such as farmers to developvegetable gardens with natural fer-tilizers and even developing refores-tation of degraded river bank areas.

II. State environmental secretariats andorganisations

Every state in -;I has an environmental or-ganisation. in '4 or co-ordinating body inchare of ca'ing out programmes andprojects to control the environment. They arealso in charge of developing monitoring ac-tivities and formulating state regulations inorder to maintain the quality of the environ-ment.

This chapter describes the environmentaleducation and training innovations in severalstate environmental secretariats and organiza-tions namely, the State EnvironmentSecretariat-SMA and thc Company for Tech-nological Development and Pollution Control-CETESB of Sao Paulo, the StateEnvironmental Engineering Foundation-FEEMA, the State Forest Institute Founda-tion-IEF, the Foundation for Public parks andGardens and the Forest Police of Rio dcJaneiro. thc Secretariat for Urban Develop .ment and the Environment-SEDU and the Su-perintendence of Water Resources and the

Environment-SUREHMA of Paraná, theState Environment Secretariat-SMMA andthe State Environment Foundation-FEAM ofMinas Gerais, the State Environment Protec-tion Foundation-FEPAM of Rio Grande doSul and the Environmental Science and Tech-nology Secretariat-SEMANTEC of Brasflia.

A. State Environment Secretariat -SIVIA of Sao Paulo State

A population of 21 million inhabitants isforecast for greater Sao Paulo by the year 2000.The capital is currently 5th in the world in termsof population. Sao Paulo produces around 50per cent of Brazil's gross domestic product-GDP. The state has around 100,000 factories,half of them located in greater Sao Paulo. It has23 industrial complexes alone amounting to110 plants.

Most of the Atlantic rain forest is also locatedin the Statc of Sao Paulo along the "Serra doMar" Mountain Range. a stretch that reaches400 km. The estuary on the southern coast is avery rich region to he presct-ved mainly becauseof the mangrove areas. SMA was founded in1986 and fully restructured in March 1987. It

141416

has a staff of 5,000 employees of which 60 percent arc based in thc capital.

The secretariat is has four departments, name-ly:

Preservation of parks and naturalareas

environmental education

environmental planning

environmental research and com-puter information

The basic aims of SMA are to recover andprotect 12.500 km2 of original forest, 400 kmof coastline, 1,3 million hectares of officiallypreserved areas: to maintain 84 public preser-vation units and to control pollution in riversand lakes, urban air pollution, urban noise im-pact and zarbage problems in the state.

The secretary is now developing the followingactivities:

final staQe of controlling pollution inCubatao

transfer of dwellers on the dangerousslopes of "Serra do Mar" MountainRange

air borne seeding of affected slopes of"Serra do Mar"

the refinement of impact studiesanalysis and evaluation

orientation of final disposal of in-dustrial earbaze

norms and control of vehicle pollution

creating Cam pinas city new ecologicalpark and eco-museum

Environmental education activities

The following activities are heing developed bythe cnvironmenrd education department-CEAM.

Inter-institutional Commission on Environ-mental and University Education-CIMAEU

The basic aim of CIMAEU is to integrate mostteaching institutions and universities in SaoPaulo in order to introduce environmental con-cerns into their policies.

The basic attributes of the Commission are:

To analyse and study the relationshipbetween the environmental questionand the university education system.

To develop the first steps in creatingassociations and scientific entities towork and link environmental educa-tion into university education.

Environmental education forum

The Forum was developed in 1989 with severalorganizations directly and indirectly related tothe environment in order to discuss the role ofenvironmental education in the state of SaoPaulo.

There were 370 participants ranging fromNGO's to university students, including stu-dents and professors of several teaching in-stitutions in which 32 papers were presentedon the following topics:

Environmental education in naturalprotected areas to generate environ-mental consciousness.

Global co-operation in the class roomfor a better world.

Course for school teachers : Analysisof thc environmental conditions inthe eastern part of Sao Paulo state,with a river basin as a reference.

Environmental education based onstudent perception and teacher'sorientation.

EnIlronmental education programme forpriman. and secondan school teachers

This programme was developed in two areas.The first was called "Vale do Ribeira", an in-dustrial region in Sao Paulo, in which practicalinformation On environmental education wasprovided for municipal school teachers.

The second was a series of environmental cour-ses given at a well known tourist island named"Ilha do Cardoso", mainly due to existing en-vironmental degradation problems.

Emironmental education in the conservationunits

This programme was developed at some of themost representative conservation areas of SaoPaulo such as ecological stations, natural parksand protection areas. The basic aim of theprogramme was to provide visitors to theseareas with environmental information.

Science train station

This project was developed with support fromthe University of Sao Paulo-USP and NationalScicntific and Technological Council-CNPq.

The physical infrastructure of thc project is anold recovered train station. It was designed toprovide all sorts of environmental entertain-

ment such as games, small models, simulationstructures for school children to have directcontact with environmental activities.

The station also has a small theatre with threeenvironmental plays: "wastes", "animals" and"good and bad technologies".

The station receives around 1,000 students perday, and in 1990 around 100,000 people (stu-dents and the general public) visited it.

Environmental toys

This project was formulated to stimulate toyfactories to develop environmentally friendly,educational toys for children ranging from 4 to8 years old. When a toy is created the factoryhas to submit it for an official approval tagprovided by SMA . If the toy is not approved itcannot be sold as an environmental toy.

Cubatao project

Cuba tao is a small town located in an industrialarca in the coastal area of Sao Paulo. It hassevere problems such as unemployment, lackof housing, basic sanitation including watcr, airand soil pollution.. It was known in the past asdeath valley because of it's high pollution rates.

But after many enviromental campaignsdeveloped by the government of Sao Paulo. thepollution rates have decreased considerably.

This project was launched in 1983 to organizelocal community groups to work on environ-mental activities against pollution in Cubatao.

The project gathered not only the locals butalso trade unions, the church and women'sgroups which participated in the process ofdisseminating special environmental educationfolders.

They also discussed the role of the communityas being environmental "watch dogs", to tax anddenounce environmental problems in theregion.

The day the city of Sao Paulo STOPPED !

In 1988 a campaign to reduce the air pollutionin the city of Sao Paulo was launched with thebasic aim of halting the circulation of cars (es-timated at 250 thousand per day) for a wholeday on an estimated date.

The idea was born because of thc severe airpollution rates in the city (one of the highest in

the world) , due to car circulation and industrial

pollution.

Thc campaign began six months before thcestablished date. During this period a massiveenvironmental education process was devel-oped with the population, estimated at 17 mil-lion inhabitants. All means of communicationwere used in the process, including thedevelopment of several environmental eventssuch as seminars, exhibitions, lectures and fairs.

The campaign was considered successful notonly because on the designated day onlyaround 250 (one per cent ) cars were seen cir-culating in the city . but also because the air

pollution rates decreased dramatically.

Seminar on entironmental impactassessment-ElA in South America

This event was organized by SMA-co-ordina-lion of environmental planning in order to dis-

cuss general aspects about EIA in several south

American countries: Argentina.Bolivia. Brazil.

Chile. Colombia. Ecuador. Guyana. French

Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguayand Venezuela. The event also included peoplerepresenting NGO's, consultant firms, interna-tional agencies and environmental tech-nicians/specialists.

The objectives of the seminar were to:

stimulate the development of en-vironmental impact Studies-EIS inSouth American countries

establish common thinking and normsof EIA and EIS practice in SouthAmerica

create a regional association of EIAprofessionals

establish integrated environmentalplanning policies

B. Company for technologicaldevelopment and pollution

control-CETESB

CETESB was created in 1968 and is currentlya centre of environment technology and sanita-tion not only working for thc Statc of Sao Paulohut also for many other Brazilian states as well

as other Latin American countries.

It has 2,307 employees with either university ormedium (technician) level degrees.

The activities developed by CETESB con-tribute to improving the quality of life ofaround 30 million inhabitants in Sao Paulo.

The company has a Training and TechnologyTransfer Division in charge of organizing,promoting and co-ordinating environmentalcourses and events such as seminars, lectures.workshops, conferences. fairs and exhibitions.These events are developed both for it's inter-nal staff and external organizations such asother Brazilian state environmental agencies,

governmental authorities and institutions.private enterprises. industry, engineeringfirms. schools and universities.

1 4

Training statistics

In terms of training activities, CETESB has thebest system in the country. From 1987 to 1989,18,000 people were trained in a wide variety ofcourses. These courses are normally divided intwo types. The first are open courses for severalclients (eg. industries, environmental organiza-tions, universities and others). The second are

closed courses with specific content, speciallydesigned for enterprises.

The open courses are sub-divided into fourspecific sectors: water, air, soil and specialareas.

The table below shows the number of coursesdeveloped from 1987 to 1990 in each of theabove mentioned sectors.

Year Water Air Soil Special Courses Total

1987 357 161 54 230 802

1988 406 183 93 466 .1,148 :

1989 559 203 673 47 1,176

1990 613 77 65 316 1,071

Total 1935 624 279 1,359 4,197

Around 25 per cent of the courses organised byCETESB are for industry. The number ofpeople from the industrial sector trained by thecompany in the period from 1987 to 1990 was

The clients trained by CETESB from 1987 to1990 arc the following:

1,145.

industry 1,145

engineerinu firms 95

public organisations:sanitation firms 341environment agenciesmunicipalities

158

others 370

research study institutions 275

international organisations 45

others 1.8-)6

CETESB 1,371

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Distance training

The company also has a long distance trainingprogramme in thc following areas:

Water quality recuperation

Sewer collection and transportationsN.stem

Installation of sewer pumping system

Ecology and Environmental Impactrk.ssessment-EIA

This programme began in 1987 and has trained730 people in Brazil. There have also beenseven participants from other Latin Americancountries.

Training events in 1990

In 1990 CETESB initiated a computerized in-formation system to provide around 8,800

people with environmental information. It alsocontinued developing a programme called theYouth Programme at the Centre for Work In-itiation-CIT This centre has already trained 90students who are now working in several ofCETESB's divisions. Another 30 students arenow being trained by the centre.

In 1990 the company undertook 1,654 audio-visual schemes and environmental visualprogrammes and developed 754 training ac-tivities on technology transfer for 57,757people. These activities were mainly courses,workshops, seminars, conferences, lecturesrand exhibitions.

The participants are from private enterprise,public organizations, NGO's ( non governmen-tal organizations), universities and media as-sociations.

The table below gives a general idea of alltraining activities undertaken:

Courses

OpenClosed

Specialised Practical Training

OpenClosedDistance Trainina Seminars,Workshops. LecturesEnvironmental Exhibitions inSchoolsEnvironmental Fairs

Student Visits

Individual AssistanceSchools

No. of Activities Participants

51 1,071

33 691

13 4933 50

3,615

43 16,61410 30,480

483 483

38 958

731 54,142gra COPY

Recycling courses

Many courses offered by CETESB arerepeated every year because of the great num-ber of people waiting to be trained in specifictopics. For instance, the most popular coursesare water treatment and pollution control andother courses such as industrial ventilation andeconomic engineering are given twice a yeardue to the high demand.

CETESB's philosophy is to update previoustraining courses providing additional informa-tion and improving training methods. The up-dated courses are normally adapted to requests

from and the needs of clients of the company(eg. industries and engineering firms).CETESB also develops evaluation reports foreach course given, whilst providing the meansfor improving the company's training services.

Duration of training courses

The training courses and special practical train-ing-TPE offered by CETESB range from 20 to80 hours/class. The relation between the dura-tion of the activity and the level of the courseis given below:

Level of efraining

Course

University

Medium

20h 24h 32h

8 7

4

36h. 4011

40

21

A list of training courses is given in Annex 2

Environmental chart

Thc environmental chart of Cubatao and sur-rounding areas was finalized in 1985. Theproject was executed by CETESB with finan-cial support from the Department of Water andElectric EnerEy-DAEE. the InternationalMaritime OrQanization-IMO and the Pan-American Health Organization-PAHO. Themethodolotzy utilized to develop the chart wasan adapted version developed by ProfessorAndré Journaux from the university of Caen.France.The project involved training activitiesand orientation provided by Professor Jour-naux.

Forty six people were trained by the project: 9graduate students, 10 executors of the project.2 technical co-ordinators. 2 supervisors. 14technicians. 2 consultants and 7 administrativestaff.

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Ent'ironmental educationactivities developed by CETESB

The department of events of CETESB hasdeveloped the following environmental educa-tion activities as seen below:

Lectures and conferences on sanita-tion, urban wastes, water supply andwaste recycling for the local popula-tion in strategic municipalities in thestate of Sao Paulo.

Environmental education and train-ing given at three basic levels: forchildren through local environmentalevents (eg. science fairs), for adults:(et!. environmental awareness ac-tivities) and university students.

Environmental education for thecoastal zone : This activity wasdeveloped to generate environmentalawareness of the existing environ-mental problems in the coastal zone

of Sao Paulo. Participants in thecourse are mainly from the municipalenvironmental councils-CODEMAS

including the participation of localpeople.

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Project I: Environmental exhibitions inschools: The main objective of this project isto introduce environmental activities such asair, soil and water pollution control in primaryand secondary schools. The exhibitions arc setup with photoEraphs, panels, video, lecturesand distribution of folders and other writteninformation.

The idea of taking the exhibition to schools wasmainly because the majority of schools cannot

cover the cost of taking students to CETESBheadquarters located in Sao Paulo city.

C. State Environmental EngineeringFoundation - FEEMA

The State Environmental Seeretariat-SEMANof Rio de Janciro is composed of three organs:FEEMA, the State Forest Institute Founda-tion - IEF Lnd the Secretariat for Rivers andLakes-SERLA as seen in the scheme below:

SEMAN

FEEMA IEF

SEMAN is responsible for eo-ordinatmg andimplementing state I,iws on the environmentand norms with support irom the above men-tioned executi\ e orgunizw,i,,ns.

SERLA

FEEMA is an executive arm of the state en-vironment policy authority which aims to con-trol the environment, plan the utilization ofnatural resources and enhance social and

9 1/4;

is

economic development. in harmony with thequality of life of the population.

In terms of environmental training, FEEMAhas been developing various activities in thepast five years. It is considered the second moststructured environmental state organization inBrazil.

In 1990 there were 900 people trained through30 courses and tcn special training events suchas conferences, scminars and meetings.FEEMA has also developed professional train-ing activities specially organized for enterprisesas well as the general public.

In general, participants in the training eventsconsist mainly of university students, schoolpupils, medium level technicians, workers,employees from engineering firms and in somecases decision makers.

How are training coursesidentified?

FEEMA has an environmental education andtraining co-ordination unit which is in chargeof identifying, structuring and organizing train-ing events. The co-ordination also analysesfeed-back given on previous courses and for-mulates new training strategies.

Thc identification of training needs is donepreviously by surveying each of thc specializeddivisions in thc institution ( eg. water pollutioncontrol, environmental impact assessment-EIA. air pollution control and others).

The information from the survey is normallyanalysed as to the Hlowing points: (1 ) the mostimportant environmental problems that occurin Rio de Janeiro State. (2 ) training demand onspecific topics. (3 ) number of participants inspecific training courses and (4) feed-hack in-formation on professional performance ofemployees after training.

An example was a course given on environ-mental impact assessment EI.A for enoineer-

ing firms in Rio de Janeiro. The basic objectiveof the course was to improve the developmentof environmental impact statements-E1S ex-ecuted by these firms, with regard to the EIAState Legislation. This resulted in better EIS'sbeing developed by the firms after the trainingcourse.

Each year FEEMA implements a new trainingprogramme adjusted to the training pro-gramme developed the year before. But al-though the number of courses is relatively high(around 30 each year) thcy are still not suffi-cient to meet demand or solve environmentalproblems in the State (eg. water pollution dueto industrial activities and household wastes,air pollution due to industrial activities and cartraffic, deforestation, soil erosion and degrada-tion of water sources due to use of pesticides).

Training activities developed in 1990

.FEEMA has been developing two types oftraining courses. The first was designed formcdium (technician) level studcnts includingstudents without primary schooling in order totrain workers for the environmental labourmarket. The second type was designed mainlyfor people with a university degree.

In 1990 1-.LEMA developed 22 courses, eightfor the first group and 14 for the second group.Sec Annex 3 for details of the courses.

Environmental education events

FEEMA has been developirT several environ-mental education events in which a large num-ber of people have participated ranging fromtown mayors to local people. The most impor-tant events organised by FEEMA arc the fol-lowing:

Fifth Municipal Conference on theEnvironment

First Environmental Education meet-inn

Seminar on Black Smoke and HumanHealth

Meeting on the Participation of theState Municipalities in the Environ-mental Question

First Seminar on FEEMAs Control,Disinfection and Rat ExterminationTechniques for Specialised Firms

First Environment State Conference

Seminar on the Recuperation of thcEnvironmental Quality of Paraiba doSul River Basin

Regional Meeting on EnvironmentalEducation and the project Environ-ment Agents-AMA

Environmental agents

This project has the basic objective of trainingschool teachers in 24 municipalities of Rio deJaneiro. The training activities rangc from con-ferences and seminars to ecological walksmainly in environmentally sensitive areas (eg.natural parks, protected forests and man-uoves

The environmental subjects treated arcadapted proportionally to the particularproblems existing in each municipality. For in-stance in the coastal areas they are orientedtowards water pollution, beach degradation.degradation of sand dunes. illegal occupationof coastal areas and other topics. In the moun-tain region thc subjects treated are mainlydeforestation, soil erosion. w aste disposal.household wastes and sanitation problems.The project has developed educational ac-tivities in more than 30 municipalities.

Seminar on the environmental question andthe niedia

This seminar was developed specially forpeople working in the media such as in radio,television, newspapers and magazines. Themain objective was to improve and correct theterminology and style of giving environmentalnews.

D. State Forest InstituteFoundation IEF

IEF is a very young organisation founded in1989. It's basic aim is to defend fauna and floraresources and to recuperate forests in the Stateof Rio de Janeiro. now estimated at only nineper cent of the total existing area in the begin-ning of the century.

The following activities have been developedby IEF in the past two and half years:

Training the military police and sol-diers regarding conservation meas-ures and forest supervision.

Training school teachers in fauna andflora preservation.

Integrating children in environmentalevents like planting trees, showing en-vironmental films, giving talks, visitingreforestation areas and participatingin ecological walks through naturalparks.

Giving talks about environmentprotection for rural communities.

Developing brochures and otherteachin a materials for schools.

Developing environmental educationprogrammes beside protected areas.

Teaching the local population how toplant trees in degraded areas.

Developing the "S.O.S. Mata Atlan-tica" (Atlantic Forest) movement toprotect and recuperate thc degradedareas.

Training university students from thcFederal Rural University of Rio deJanciro-UFRrJ in producing seeds forreforestation projects.

Planting trees in the "Faye las"

The "favelas" are slums located on the moun-tain tops and hillsides of Rio de Janeiro. Be-cause of the low income and lack of livingfacilities such as water, sanitation measuresand often electricity, in the past 40 years thepopulation has cut down most of the forests forwood supply for cooking.

The very low cultural level of thc people livingin these areas due to various social problemshas made it difficult to develop any recupera-tion project of existing eroded areas.

IEF has found an original way of developingreforestation and social improvement projectsat the samc time providing environmentaleducation for the people living there.

d ei orestati on

Normally before developing any reforestationproject in the "favelas", it is necessary todevelop a social project previously in order toconvince the inhabitants that they will benefitfrom it. First, there has to be an exchange offavours. In one specific case, the work wasdeveloped with the Social Care Organisation -LBA from the Federal government. They firstgave powdered milk for the families and evenconstructed stairways up the hill in order forthe "favelados" (people living in the favelas), toaccept advice from IEF regarding reforestationactivities.

This exchange of favours was highlighted byIEF as a typical "white man - Indian exchangesystem", (eg. first the white man gives a mirroror a whistle, then the Indians are opened up fora dialogue).

The reforestation programme in this particular"favela" in Rio de Janeiro worked well but inmany cases if a social programme is notdeveloped prior to starting a reforestationproject, then the probability of success is verysmall.

IEFenvironmental

education

1111111411 ref orestati on

The success of a ref orestation pro oramme nor-mally depends very much on where the "favela"is located. For instance "favelas" located nearthe wealthy areas of Rio de Janeiro (eg. inIpanerna, Sao Conrado and Copacabana ), havemore chances for sucL.L.ss because their in-habitants have rnorc access to education and

are more aware and open to new action by thegovernment.

In a particular favela called "Vidigal", a refores-tation project was launched with the local com-munity in order to recover some degradedareas. The local population participated in en-vironmental training events regarding the posi-

t-1

tive aspects of reforestation, care with nativeand fruit species and the benefit they coulddraw out of these trees.

The success of this project was such that notonly was the local community able to harvestand sell fruits in the market, but also to haverecuperated the degraded areas.

E. Foundation for public parks andgardens

The foundation is a public body linked to thetown hall of Rio de Janeiro city. It is developinga programme to plant more than 110 thousandtrees of native fruit and exotic species on themountain tops and main hillsides of Rio.

The trees are being planted in order to mini-mise the risk of soil erosion whenever heavyrains fall, which may consequently negativelyaffect the population which has settled in thefavelas.

The programme is linked to an environmentaleducation campaign for local communitiesliving around these areas.

Seeds and seedlings are distributed amongstthe population by six technicians who providetechnical orientation on how to plant and con-serve the trees.

The programme has also recruited 120 localpeople to work in the reforestation activitieswhich seek to recover 75 hectares in two years.

F. The forest police

The forest police is a recent branchof themilita police of Rio de Janeiro created inorder to supervise and monitor the stateforests.

The police were trained by the forest battalionof Sao Paulo State which has 35 Nvars ex-perience in this field.

The group trained by the forest battalion laterorganised training courses for 280 soldiers whoform the police. The main activities developedare:

surveillance of irregular fishing andhunting

controlling deforestation

giving penalties to people commitinginfractions against the BrazilianForestry code.

controlling potential negative en-vironmental activities

Internal training schemes are also beingdeveloped regarding specific topics such ascourses on snakes and other dangerousanimals.

G. Secretariat for urbandevelopment and the environment -

SEDU of Paraná State

SEDU is in charge of implementing Lnddeveloping environmental activities in theState of Parand. It has developed several en-vironmental training events in the last fouryears with the Superintendence for WaterResources and the Environment SUREHMA(directly subordinated to SEDU). One of themost successful training courses organised bythe two bodies is described below:

First course on environmental managementand administration

In 1987 the First course on environmentalmanagement and administration was launchedwith participants from several public (Federal.state and municipal) organisations. The posi-tive feedback from this course stimulatedSEDU to improve it's structure and developsecond and third training courses in 1988 and1989.

Because of the great success and positiverepercussion in other states a fourth trainingcourse was developed with participation andsupport from the State Environment Organisa-tions of Rio Grande do Sul - FEPAM, andSanta Catarina - FATMA.

Objectives of the course

The basic aim of the course is to train peopleworking with environmental administration inmethods of environmental analysis and evalua-tion of development projects.

The course also focuses on environmental im-plications of governmental development ac-tion such as urban and rural development,mining activities, and other projects that havea potential risk for thc environment.

During the course there are several activitiessuch as seminars. panels, technical visits andcase study development in which participantstake part.

CommunityRelationsGroup

Environmentaleducation

The course was designed for a multidisciplinarygroup of 35 participants (eg. engineers, ar-chitects, biologists, agronomists, nurses, veteri-nary surgeons, oceanographers, sociologists,administrators, school counsellors, socio-logists, librarians and other areas), divided intofive groups (of seven participants each), towork during the course on the following topics:urban development, regional development,rural development, industrial developmentand eco-development.

H. Superintendence for WaterResources and the Environment -

SUREHMA

SUREHMA is subordinated directly to SEDUand is formed into three basic divisions: theDepartment of Environment, the WaterResource Department and the CommunityRelations Group in which environmentaleducation activities are co-ordinated.

The organisation of the body is as follows:

SEDU

SUREHM

'VaterResourcesDepartment

AgriculturalSecretariat

Department ofEnvironment

State programme on environmental education Environmenutl educationcampaigns

This programme was developed in order tounite all efforts in developing an integratedenvironmental education project with variousState governmental bodies (cg. severalgovernmental secretariats: agriculture, urbanplanning and others), directly or indirectly.working with the environment.

In other words, the programme was mainlydeveloped to have a common environmentaleducation programme for the whole State, inwhich all bodies would be working on differentprojects but for the same objectives.

Eniironmental courses

These courses are designed not only to trainschool teachers from municipal schools, butalso to train people capable of training localcommunities.

The participants in these courses are in generalNGOs and local technicians from municipalorganisations. Other courses designed special-ly for children and teenagers regarding ecologi-cal conservation in urban and rural areas werealso developed.

Tabagiiver

A campaign was developed in schools, com-munity groups, television and newspapersseeking to:

generate awareness amongst thepopulation

create ways for the population to re-late themselves to environmental fac-tors

train people to train other people

disseminate governmental environ-mental regulations

elaborate educational materials aboutlocal and regional particularities

Inter-Municipal Action for EnvironmentalProtection of the Tabagi River Basin - COPATI

The arca of the basin is more than 24 thousandkrn2 with 41 municipalities and around1,200.00() inhabitants. The basin has severalenvironmental problems such as pollution byagrotoxics and wastes and water pollution bydomestic effluents including industrial pollu-tion.

The basic point of the programme is not onlyto solve environmental problems with techni-cally orientated solutions but to re-orientatepeople's relationship with the environmentthrough recuperation. protection and conser-vation practices.

Tabagi RiverBasim

The programme is a joint venture betweenseveral organisations directly or indirectly in-volved with the environment (eg. public or-ganisations, superior teaching institutions,religious institutions and Statc and municipaloraans).

Strategic action of the programme

Developing three community meet-ings of one day's duration each

Developing six seminars on environ-mental awareness for 600 people oftwo days' duration each

Developing several courses for schoolteachers of 24 hours/class, focusing onthe following, topics: introduction toCOPATI, regional and local environ-mental problems formal and informalenvironmental education practical ac-tivities

Discussion of proposals

Environmental text contest for pri-mary and secondary schools

Thlks on environmental issues

"A Jardineira" (The Garden ecological Bus)

This project is very similar to the onedeveloped by SEMANTEC by the Federal Dis-trict Government-GDF in Brasilia (describedlater in this report).

The objective of the project is to circulate a bus(painted with ecoloaical subjects such as thelocal pine tree - Araucaria, birds and animals),in all of the municipalities of TIBAGI riverbasin. This was mainly done to disseminateinformation on the environment, culture andfolklore as w.ell as events mainly in the ruralarea.

The bus is administered and maintained by apaper mill company and co-ordinated by twotechnicians from COPATI. The State Environ-ment Education Group has trained severalpeople to work in the activities developed bythe bus. The scheme for the bus is seen below:

exhibitionstands

The bus acts as a circus arrivinti in a small to\\ n.The educational entertainment proposed bythe bus normally stimulates almost evervonefrom the towns to participate in the activities.

it tra% els mainly throuoh rural aicas in order tovisit schools and provide them with environ-mental inlormat ion on important !leogrdphicaland e,:olot.tical aspects or the basin.

-0 0

The main activities developed arc video andslides presentations, environmental exhibi-tions, musical shows with local artists, plays,presentation of folk groups, ecological com-petitions. talks and other events.

Etwironmental information courses

Environmental information courses are givenat the Federal University of Paranzi - UFPa inorder to inform graduate students of environ-mental issues, on the following topics: solidwaste management, forest management. EIAand EIS.

Environmental education courses for schools

These courses were structured for primary andsecondary school teachers in order to involvethem in environmental activities. SUREHMAoreanised visits to conservation areas, wastedisposal sites and a bio-digestion plant. Thebasic idea of the course was to stimulateteachers to take their pupils to the field forenvironmental observation.

Environmental impact of dams

SUREHMA and the German Society for Tech-nical Cooperation GTZ have been oreanisingshort term training courses on the environmen-tal impact of dams on the following topics:

Risk analysis

EIA of terrestrial environment

EIA of it:thyoltiunti

EIA of social activities

I. State Environment Secretariat -SMMA of Minas Gerais

In July 198Q the department of EnvironmentalDevelopment of SMN1A was created and sub-divided in tw o divisions. The first is the

project/study division and the second is theenvironmental education division, which hasbeen developing activities mainly in themetropolitan area of Belo Horizonte (capitalof the State), as seen below:

Training centre

SMMA has a plan to develop a training centreas part of an integrated programme co-or-dinated by the State Education Secretariat andthe Human Science and Philosophy Faculty -FAFI CH E.

The main objective of the plan is to create anenvironmental training centre for municipalschool teachers and students in general.

The centre will include all facilities (eg. library.classrooms, conference room, audio-visualequipment and others), specially designed fortraining events.

Seminars on environmentalquestions regarding the city of Belo Horizonte

The seminars focused on the following topics:

tree planting

green areas (parks, eardens andforests)

waste collection and disposal

Pampulha ecoloOcal reserve

Serra do Curral environmental patri-mony

noise pollution

school and environmental education

SEMAN also developed an integrated projectin 1985 with parents, teachers and studentsfrom the municipal primary and secondaryschools to plant trees in the metropolitan areaof Belo Horizonte city.

-4

"The other skle of the environment"

This project was developed to integrate en-vironmental topics into the working activitiesexecuted by public workers. In other words, theproject gathered thc people that carried outenvironmental jobs (cg. tree planting, garden-ing, park supervision and others), in themetropolitan arca of Belo Horizonte, in ordcrto explain the type of job that they were doingand the positive relation with the environment.

This training activity was developed becausethe workers did not realise how their workhelped improve the environment.

The other point of the training programme wasto stimulate thc integration of environmentalaffairs in their daily lives, such as recyclinghousehold wastes, making compost, develop-ina vegetable gardens, participating in environ-mental community aroups, and other activities.

Thc project focused on lectures, informal semi-nars and social integration events for workers(c.a. barbecue). A total of 200 workers weretrained in this project.

J. State Environment Foundation -FEAM

FEAM is subordinate to the State Environ-ment Secretariat - SM MA and is responsible

EnvironmentalLegislation

Env ironment al r(. .

problems: a&?.<0k. '

for executing environmental policy as well asdisseminating environmental informationthrough educational schemes for the public ingeneral, private enterprises and governmentalbodies.

The environmental training programmesdeveloped by FEAM are executed at twolevels. The first is at the formal school educa-tion level, in which environmental education isintroduced as a multidisciplinary subject.

Events such as environmental competitionamongst school children, conferences, talks,school research orientation, creation of an en-vironmental library, video shows, seminars andcourses and the distribution of brochures,posters, folders and papers have also been or-ganised.

Another point of thc programme is to trainmunicipal school teachers including peopleconnected directly with several municipal en-vironmental councils - CODEMAS. The train-ing activities focus mainly on the cxistingenvironmental problems and possible solu-tions to these problems.

As a resul the trained people have been actingas "multip,..-m- agents" (teaching other people)in schools and through community participa-tion. This training scheme is as follows:

Trainingprogramme

,by FEIIM

SchoolteachersCODEMEI

MunicipalSchoolNetwork

The main subjects treated in the above training mental protection areas - APA implemented in

scheme arc:

The environment: concepts, com-ponents and classificationduration: 1 hour

Pollution: concepts, types, sources,causes and effectsduration: 1 hour

"The Great Pollutors" : 15 minutesvideo

Multi-disciplinary environmentaleducation: social studies, science,agriculture techniques, mathematics,artistic education, physical educationand communication

"Education Reality" : 15 minutesvideo

Up to 1990 eight environmental educationprojects had been developed as follows:

Rural environmental educationproject and azricultureal!farm exhibi-tion

Environmental education at Jequitin-honha-Turmalina

Environmental education at the eco-logical station of TriptLE

Environmental education for privateenterprises

Environmental education at Papagaioecological station

Environmental education at theCachoeira das Andorinhas protectionarea

Television eduation pro.iect

Environmental educti-.)n at Manti-queira-Bocaina protected areas

The second level is the informal educationprocess designed u venerate awarenessamongst municipal authorities revarding exist-ing environmental prohlems the environ-

the State.

At this level the following activities have beendeveloped:

seminars and public talks for ap-proximately 100 people

cultural activities such as open airtheatre, rural environmental exhibi-tion and ecological video competition

Conferences given for the industrialsector

The Green Project

This project was created in 1989 (and wassuspended in 1990 due to new governmentpriorities), in order to stimulate public par-ticipation in helping preserve the environment,controlling polluting activities and recuperat-ing environmentally degraded areas. The twolast acti,ities were supported and developed byprivate initiative.

The basic aim of the project was to expand theexisting green areas in the State of MinasGerais by planting trees, developing gardens,and other ecological activities such as environ-mental education schemes.

K. State Environment ProtectionFoundation - FEPAM

FEPAM is the environmental body from RioGrande do Sul State It is subordinate to theState Health Secretariat and is in charge ofco-ordinating and executing thc State environ-ment policy.

FEPANI has developed several training ac-tivities in the past years as seen below:

4th Course on Environmental Administrationand Planning

This course is described later in this chapter.

First Course on Environmental Education forthe Media (television, radio, newspaper and

trade unions in the area)

The course was entitled Social Communicationand the Environment designed to correct andteach basic ecological and environmental ter-minology (words and expressions) used by themedia. FEPAM decided to develop this coursebecause of thc incorrect description of specificenvironmental news given by the media.

The philosophy of the course was to "informwithout deforming". The basic objective of thecourse is to train journalists, press people,publicity professionals, public relations andtourism professionals in using environmentalconcepts and terms for environmental news.

The course is being organised by FEPAM withthc participation of the Secretary of Health,Public Health School, Communication Facultyof the Catholic University-PUC and the Pressassociation - ARI.

The duration of the course is 120 hoursiclassfor 35 participants.

15in Public Health Course

This course is organised annually by the StateHealth Secretariat. the Public Health School,the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation FIOCRUZand suppported by FEPAN1 vhich has con-tributed with 165 hours class ( the course lasts800 hoursclass) in the following subjects:

Transmission disease and hio-ecolotw- 45 hours

t.t

Environment and sanitation - 60hours

Sanitation supervision, workershealth and the environment - 60 hours

The course was mainly designed for 30 par-ticipants working directly in health care. Theyare requested to present a final report at theend of the course. For instance one of thereports presented was on the impact on humanhealth, the water control system and air pollu-tion of metalworking. Workers from the metal-working industry participated in this coursewith support from their trade union. In the last15 years the course has trained around 450people.

Conferences on the environment

Three conferences were developed in whichthe following topics were discussed:

First conference: EnvironmentalProblems in Rio Grande do Sul StateIn this conference the participantsmainly discussed the most importantenvironmental problems in the State.

Second conference: Survey of PublicOpinion on Environmental Topics toElaborate the State Constitution.This event was developed to gatherpublic opinion on important environ-mental issues occuring in the State inorder to support the development ofthe environmental text of the ncwState Constitution. Thc processbegan with eight local environmentalconferences developed in strategicmunicipalities.

The information gathered was themselected and discussed at the First En-vironment State Conference. Thisconference selected qualitative infor-mation to elaborate the State Con-stitution as seen in the scheme below:

-.11/3

1

First StateEnvironmentConference

8 Regional EnvironmentalConferences

The third conference was developed through apublic survey to support developing state en-vironmental legislation.

4th State Congress on the Environment

This congress was developed to discuss en-vironmental problems in critical municipalitiesof Rio Grande do Sul.

Informal talks on environmental issues

This programme was designed to reach thepopulation of the northern coastal area of theState. The basic objective was to inform thepopulation of existing environmental problemsin the area and to stimulate them to participatein several events such as reforestation schemes.domestic waste management, environmentalconservation and awareness regarding impactsfrom mining activities and sanitation problems.

State meeting 01? rice crop iechnologr and thecm.ironment

FEPAM decided to develop a three day meet-ing on how to solve the environmental

.11.4r .,..11.al 1 ...1Veo,m=,.

State Constitution ofR33 Grande do Sul

problems cause by rice agro-industries (eg.water, air and soil pollution).

L. Environment Science and Technol-ogy Secretariat - SEMANTEC

SEMANTEC is directly subordinate to theFederal District Government GDF ofBrasilia. It is responsible for executing environ-mental policy and is currently developing twovery interesting environmental educationprojects as seen below:

Alternative food and medicinal herbs andt'egetable gardens.

The main objective of this project is togenerate awareness towards environmentalpreservation and public information in schoolsand surrounding areas.

In short, the project seeks to stimulate primaryand secondary school students (and thepopulation in general), regarding the utilisa-tion of natural remedies and alternative healthfood to improve their heaRh and quality of life.

The students are also expected to work on soilmanagement activities, natural fertilisation ofthe soil (organic compost from thc household)and development of a natural pharmacy.

Justifications of the project

Natural healing through natural medicine hasbeen used by the Brazilian indigenous peopleand forest inhabitants in the past. This type ofmedicine is free and very rarely has any secon-dary effects. The main idea of the project is tore-establish these practices amongst thepopulation. specially those with low income.

The project involves several governmental or-ganisations such as the Aoricultural Secretary.the Education Scerctan. Technical Assistance

eg etabl eGarden

and Rural Extension OrganisationEMATER, regional administrations, theHealth Secretary and the Green Apothecaryfrom Brazlandia.

Project: "0 Amigo do Cerrado" (the SavannaFriend)

An old bus from GDF was recovered bySEMANTEC and "environmentalised" (pain-ted with ecological subjects such as the faunaand flora of the savanna region) to be used asa moving - dynamic instrument in developingenvironmental cducation activities not only inurban areas but mainly in rural areas of theFederal District and Goias State. The schemefor the bus is sketched on the next pag,e:

4 ,11

Aairs

ideo

cover

ut-door stage

refrigerater

Cerruti() Friend Bus

photo exhibition

exhibition

stand

the basic aim of the bus is to teach the localpopulations (mainly those with some typc ofaccess to environme