Environmental education in Brazil and thoughts about the Law n. 9.795/1999

Abstract

The article discusses environmental education in Brazil, in line with human rights and aims to weigh on Law n. 9.795/1999. The research problem questions what the Law 9.795/1999 did effectively provide in environmental term. The objective is to investigate how informal teaching spaces are being favored and if environmental education is effective in a perspective limited to the school space or should be disseminated as an ethical and practical content in human relationships. It is a qualitative bibliographic and legislative research, with the deductive method. Firstly, the text presents the historical aspects of environmental education and its reflexes in Brazil, also the international treaties the country has signed, the constitutional commandments, and institutes that enshrine the protection of the environment. Sequentially, the text focuses on the Environmental Education Law (Law n. 9.795/99), presenting critical reflections on its provisions. The results point to the importance of environmental education for the National Education Policy, understanding the objective for an integrated understanding of the environment in its multiple and complex relationships (i.e., ecological, psychological, legal, political, social, economic, scientific, cultural and ethical). Therefore, environmental education must be included in formal education, but also directed to the community, guaranteeing the democratization of socio-environmental information, encouraging the strengthening of a critical awareness of environmental and social issues, encouraging individual and collective participation, permanently and responsible, in the preservation of the balance of the environment. The defense of environmental quality is a value inseparable from the exercise of citizenship.