Abstract:

The society around conservation units (UC) has difficulty accessing education. This condition hinders the critical capacity of these populations and contributes to alienation with respect to the patrimonial value of the cultural and environmental base. These communities are, in general, settlements that have a lower degree of degradation and human occupation and are social groups that can contribute with government agents and civil society for the protection and management of nature. Community-based surveys and monitoring are notable for the importance of results related to natural resource management and conservation, as well as representing desired and effective interactions between environmental managers, researchers, and the lay public. The term "Science-citizen", which describes partnerships between scientists and lay volunteers, has the potential to participate effectively in collecting and/or analyzing scientific data when applied to public interest topics. Based on this perspective, the Citizen Conscience program, a partnership between the university, NGO and ICMBIO, with the support of CNPq and Fapesp, was developed with the objective of contributing to the training of people, especially residents of the national parks (PN), to work as a citizen-scientist and stimulating volunteerism. Three courses were carried out, from the point of view of the science-citizen, aiming to stimulate the scientific formation, the engagement in socioenvironmental activities and the improvement of the PN's natural spaces. Each course has 40 hours of theoretical-practical activities, taught by researchers-specialists in the respective areas and a further 40 hours of intervention activities in the PN or surroundings. The first course focused on scientific training provides tools for bird monitoring, based on fixed point, path and scanning methods. The second course is based on the recovery of natural areas belonging to the PN. It offers studies and practices of ecological restoration of abandoned trails of the park, aiming the restoration of the native vegetation. The third course focuses on the theoretical-methodological training for the construction of socio-educational projects necessary for the development of ecotourism in the PNs. The three courses were conducted between July/2018 and March/2019.

Among the obtained results are:
a) participation of 88 subjects distributed in the 3 courses, being the majority of residents of the PN;
b) scientific training of 22 subjects involved who have appropriated the methods of observation and characterization of the birds, encouraging the recognition of some species of the place and characteristics of conservation of the species;
c) rehabilitation and construction of track areas, restored through the nucleation technique totaling 40.51 m2 and construction of a new trail of 409.5 m2 by the 33 students of the second course; and
d) elaboration of five socio-environmental intervention projects by the 33 students of the third year, involving topics such as: inclusion of visitors with hearing impairment, Environmental Education in the surrounding schools by means of the rescue of the history of the PN, improvement of the signs of environmental awareness of the visitors, elaboration of products of educommunication to divulge educational activities in the PN, socio-political articulation making possible the visitation of the church and historical center of one of the headquarters of the PN.

Keywords:

Environmental Education, Volunteering, Science-citizenship.