ANALYSIS OF EVALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN LICENSING : CONTRIBUTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

Resumo

Environmental education programs associated with the licensing process are an important strategy for the implementation of different social actors' rights, encouraging participation in management and in decision making that affect environmental quality. Environmental education programs are usually included among programs for mitigation and compensation of impacts of activities in Brazil, and should follow the guidelines posed by IBAMA Normative Instruction 02/2012. In this study, we analyze 24 environmental education programs of projects submitted to the licensing process focusing on their proposed evaluation indicators. Only 4% of the programs did not show indicators, and most programs presented quantitative indicators (88%), but among these indicators only 75% were clearly described. Qualitative indicators were observed in 70% of the programs, with only 39% of these clearly described. In considering whether the indicators were generally consistent with the goals outlined in the program, it was noted that 50% were consistent, 23% were partially consistent and 27% were inconsistent. Finally, although all programs have presented a methods section describing actions, 25.09% did not describe any method of evaluating its results. The IN IBAMA 12/2012 presents the guidelines for planning and implementing of environmental education programs under the environmental licensing process. However, in this article we demonstrate how environmental education programs in this context do not meet part of the minimum requirements. We believe that the IN 12/2012 should be revised to explicitly state what should be understood by goals, targets and indicators in order to require structured programs in which the indicators of evaluation are directly associated with the proposed objectives.