Educomunicação ambiental como ferramenta para a divulgação e conservação de áreas protegidas na Região da Baixada Fluminense - Brasil

Abstract

Educational communication has been gaining prominence since the 1970s with the integration of information technologies into education, especially in more developed countries, gaining strength in Brazil over the past two decades. Paulo Freire was one of the promoters of this creative perspective of Communication/Education interrelation, pointing to the essentially dialogical nature of communication processes for the formation of a "critical consciousness." However, educational communication can also occur analogically without the use of technologies, such as in the making of signs, posters, models, pamphlets, exhibitions, and similar items. Environmental educational communication can be especially utilized through fast media, such as social networks, with YouTube Shorts, Instagram Stories or Reels, and short TikTok videos, which can be explored for the creation of audiovisual resources, as well as for the production of clips, short films, among others, all of which have a wide reach of environmental educational communication to the current population. The objective of this chapter is to explore the role of environmental educational communication as a tool for the dissemination and conservation of protected areas in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, also known as Baixada Fluminense, presenting an overview of these areas with a focus on the Mário Xavier National Forest (Flona MX).The conservation units of Baixada Fluminense suffer from stereotypes attributed to the social and economic issues of the region, these facts contribute to the invisibility of these green areas, directly affecting conservation. Changing this scenario can come from encouraging society to become active in conservation, taking on the role of protagonists and for that, educomunicação must be present in these spaces, providing information, knowledge, and dissemination of these spaces, making society recognize the importance of protected areas, known in Brazil as Conservation Units. Thus, it was identified that the use of technological resources such as social media are extremely important tools and should be incorporated into communication plans of protected areas, as well as shared management practices should become more present, especially with the technical scientific support of universities, having the Shared Guard Extension Program Flona Mário Xavier, with a great example of integration and success in Baixada Fluminense for conservation.