Environmental health education: extension practices in traditional communities around the Acaú-Goiana Extractive Reserve

Abstract

Environmental education is an essential practice for health promotion in traditional territories that have historically had difficulties in accessing quality education and health services and rights, and are also affected by various socio-environmental impacts resulting from the capitalist mode of production. This article aimed to describe the environmental education actions focused on health carried out in traditional communities that border the Acaú-Goiana Extractive Reserve (PE/PB), through a participatory socio-environmental diagnosis with local health professionals and the discussion of the problems of the territory with elementary school students. It was found that communities face several complex problems such as water rationing, lack of a sanitary sewage system, insufficient solid waste collection services, among other problems, which directly affect the production and reproduction of the social life of the populations in these territories. The environmental education actions proved to be a relevant strategy for enabling the participatory understanding of the environmental problems of the territories through an interdisciplinary perspective together with students and health professionals.