Environmental Education: One of the Ways to Protect the Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon is an essential element for the maintenance of terrestrial life, but its preservation involves challenges and possibilities that may have education a possible solution.

By: Fernando Cafe

Climate change, increased impacts on nature, and deforestation are worrying points that affect the entire world population. In this sense, the stability of the environment results from a union of factors that have the Amazon as one of its main components. With approximately 40,000 plant species and more than 400 mammals, the forest has for decades faced two problems: the heightened threat to biodiversity and the lack of social awareness about the importance of conserving this biome. From this emerges the importance of environmental education, not only for such a tropical forest but for constructing a more ecological and sustainable society.

Such a rainforest has today, according to the research "Amazônia contra o relógio: Uma avaliação regional sobre onde e como proteger 80% até 2025" (Amazon against the clock: a regional assessment on where and how to protect 80% by 2025), 26% of its devastated area, is 59% in Brazil. In parallel, 49% of Brazilians, according to a survey of the SRede Conhecimento Social and IBOPE, do not know what Sustainable Development Goals are. Thus, how is it possible to promote the construction of solutions to the problems of the environment if there is a lack of knowledge surrounding this issue?

In this sense, environmental education arises not only to direct the care of the ecosystem but is a theme that relates to nature, society, economy, and conflicts. This, coupled with scientific research and community involvement, makes environmental preservation a fruitful place for social development.

An example of this occurs in the project "Mamirauá: Conservação e Uso Sustentável da Biodiversidade em Unidades de Conservação." With an estimate of more than 13 thousand people benefiting, the initiative attempts to train, guide, and support projects involved with schools and communities, particularly on ways to care for the forest. For example, they use environmental education to promote real change to ameliorate the effects of unprecedented fires, misuse of resources, and deforestation.

Therefore, raising awareness to preserve the environment becomes a seed that solidifies sustainable development and the protection of nature. After all, action is needed because while you read the article - in approximately 2 minutes - more than 1040 trees were destroyed in the Amazon rainforest.