A percepção de risco dos moradores de Foz do Iguaçu: Desafios de Educação Ambiental não formal para resiliência climática

Abstract

The challenges associated with climate change are demanding a deep transformation in society’s behavior. This process requires the development of a local climate resiliency. The non-formal Environmental Education is the right field of knowledge to mediate the relation between teaching and learning about the environment. This article analyses the environmental risk perception among Foz do Iguaçu, Brasil population, in order to obtain important information to help the efforts of non-formal Environmental Education and the development of a local climate resiliency. Content analysis was used to study 249 questionnaires from 2024. From there three risk categories were created from the respondents perceived risks: Body, Climate, and Territory. The results demonstrate that the majority of the concerns of the population is connected to immediate concerns of health and survival, with the Body category as the most represented category, led by the risk from dengue. Next, there are the phenomena related to Climate, like the increase of heat waves, while the risks connected to Territory (like deforestation or inadequate infrastructure) are the least cited ones. The authors conclude that this strong connection to the experience of daily life and to the physical integrity of the individual shows that there exists a deficit of knowledge that connects these threats to the climate emergency in a more consistent way. Lastly, this study reinforces the urgent need of an Environmental Education municipal program that is contextualized and focused on the creation of municipal climate resilience.