Nonformal environmental education: a case study with farmers in a town of the South Minas Gerais state, Brazil

Abstract

Brazil is a central place in the international agricultural markets and this fact has been demanding environmentally oriented agricultural practices by Brazilian farmers and professionals involved in the agricultural market chain. A concise and structured questionnaire was applied to obtain the environmental perception of a group of Brazilian farmers in a town of the south Minas Gerais state, using herbicides as the topic for a case study. A highly variable opinion about taking the environment into account when choosing the most appropriate herbicide was found. Anyway, efficacy has been indicated as the most important factor when choosing an herbicide, followed by the environment and price. The outcomes from the questionnaires, i.e. the insufficient conception and importance given to environment when choosing the herbicide, motivated the creation of a teaching-learning model for the nonformal environmental education using the concept of socio-ecological resilience. This routine puts in practice the resilience thinking currently invoked as a major tool to achieve the conservation of the socio-ecological system, as well as it is complimentary to the outcome-oriented optimization for conservation theory. For the case study about farmers and the use of herbicides, we conclude that a complex reasoning and, ultimately, pro-environmental actions can be improved after experiencing the recommended model for environmental education.

Keywords:

• environmental perception
• farmers
• herbicides
• resilience thinking
• socio-ecological system

Additional information

Funding

The authors are thankful to FAPEMIG, CAPES/Rede Mineira de Química and CNPq for the financial support, studentships (to M.R.F. and S.V.B.G.M.) and fellowships (to M.R.F., R.L.G.M., M.P.F. and N.V.).