Educação ambiental para multiplicação de condutas conscientes dos usuários das piscinas naturais da Praia do Seixas, João Pessoa-PB

Abstract

Environmental education has a fundamental place in sensitizing and educating society about the importance of the natural environment conservation, encouraging the construction of a new mentality oriented towards environmental ethics and citizenship. This study the goal was to develop environmental awareness actions with users (visitors and tourism agents) of the natural pools of Seixas Beach in João Pessoa - PB. Prior information obtained from visitors of the area revealed that the instructions given during the tours are mostly about personal safety and care for reefs, followed by information about the organisms that occur in the area and at the beach. The study was developed from November of 2019 to March of 2020, but the campaigns were from January to March 2020, within three catamarans that goes to the area of study. During the tours, passengers and staff were instructed, using illustrative materials, with information of the local biodiversity, coral vulnerability conditions, as well as instructions on conscious conducts that should be followed when visiting reef environments. The campaign also took place in the @coraleucuido profile at Instagram. We shared 16 posts that involved themes about the health conditions of the reefs, guidance on conscious conduct and the dissemination of the educational campaign. The data collected revealed that the employees consider the actions important, they are also interested in continuing with this task, and indicate that they would like to receive free training to learn about the local coral species and conscious behavior. Most tourists said that developing activities like this is relevant, and the information most absorbed is those who have a behavioral character (41.18%), follow the environmental (38.24%) and biological content (20.50%). The promotion of the social network was successful, the Instagram profile reached more than 29,000 profiles and more than 45,000 views and shares. The project has great instructional potential for environmental conservation, with future prospects training local tourism agents, so they become multipliers of conscious behavior in reef environments. In addition, we hope that in a long term, actions like this become models for other reef environments in Paraíba.