A capitalização da natureza em áreas protegidas e suas implicações à educação ambiental

discursos sobre a concessão do Parque Estadual do Ibitipoca (MG)

Abstract

Given the current climate emergency, the establishment of Protected Areas (PAs) is seen as a promising strategy, given that environmental degradation is understood as one of the main causes of climate change. However, by bringing about transformations in local socio-environmental and territorial dynamics, their establishment can be a precursor to environmental inequalities, impacting the rights to and of nature. Given this context, drawing on contributions from Critical Discourse Analysis to EE, this article presents an analysis of the ideological forces at work in national and international environmental agendas and policies related to PAs. It aims to understand how these are established in the discourses of local and external actors involved in the concession process for the Ibitipoca State Park (MG), as well as to capture the educative capabilities that emerge from the discourses studied. Based on the analysis of the aforementioned discourses, the conflict of interests surrounding the park concession reveals an asymmetry of power and socio-environmental contradictions established in the local context. Favorable discourses, anchored in hegemonic ideals, ultimately conceal local environmental inequalities and obstacles to the consolidation of effective social participation, which are enunciated in opposing discourses. Therefore, critical environmental education plays an important role in this context, seeking to understand and construct educative capacities that emerge from local realities, highlighting other meanings and interests regarding environmental issues, and fostering the consolidation of concrete and more equitable solutions in the pursuit of social transformation.