Popular education and environment: dialogues with traditional populations in the Amazon Region

Abstract

This paper aims at describing an experience in consulting whose objectives were the census of the dwellers, the socio-economic diagnosis and the creation of the Deliberative Councils in two Conservation Units located in Terra do Meio, Pará, in the Amazon region. Popular Education and Freire’s methodology applied to literacy programs for adults formed the bases for the tasks that were carried out. This process used some principles, such as communitarian dialogue and participation, and valued the traditional culture – consequently, the environment –, besides favoring a more participative and critical understanding of the reality. The experiences that were described can be used as parameters to work with traditional populations that live/don’t live in conservation areas. However, it is important to point out that the problems this research diagnosed are regional. Therefore, the proposals presented to face them were considered according to their specificity and idiosyncrasy.