O imagético de uma comunidade caatingueira e os sentidos atribuídos à onça em um processo formativo de educação ambiental crítica

Abstract

This dissertation presents an environmental education research, grounded in an understanding and critical perspective which seeks to contribute to the formation of subjects able to read and act in the world, positioning themselves critically towards the lived reality. This qualitative survey was conducted in concert with a teachers and community members environmental education formation process at the Brejo dos Olhos d Água community, in the caatinga region of Barra-BA. It is also a contextualized educational process, which considers the historicity of the subjects included in social contexts grounded in the popular education disseminated by Paulo Freire. Participatory methods were used to understand the environmental and social perception of the participating group, such as the biomap and rotating panel, deepening the study through photography using a method known as photo-elicitation. Following this stage, our research builds up the main issue of the dissertation, the analysis of the meanings attributed to the jaguar (Panthera onca) and puma (Puma concolor). The relationship between humans and jaguars is extremely conflicted due to the ecological role that this animal occupies: a top predator chain. Thus, there are conflicts of habitat, natural resource use and cattle predation. In order to fulfill our objective of to better understand the origin of so many negative feelings towards these animals, the participant group conducted field interviews with hunters and collected stories related to jaguars and pumas. At the end of this work we used the focus group technique to deepen some of the issues relevant to all research. We applied questionnaires at all stages of the research to obtain data on environmental and social perception and to evaluate the educational process. We adopted hermeneutics as a theoretical perspective to interpret subjective questions implicit to humans, and other relevant techniques within each of the issues addressed, such as the use of semiotics to interpret images. The resuIts evidenced the fact that living in the Caatinga, where livelihoods are directly related to the use of resources and where water is a limiting factor, makes the conflict even more emblematic and therefore this must be considered in any decision. We point out possible ways for continued and contextualized teachers formation processes; awareness of emerging forms of perceiving natural resources beyond the utilitarian; the demystification of fear through information and, if possible, contact with animals; joint planning and participatory use of the area may ensure the survival of both people ways of life and of the jaguar.