La educación ambiental en comunidades rurales y la popularización del derecho a la conservación del entorno natural: el caso de la comunidad de pescadores en la Ciénaga de Ayapel (Colombia)

Abstract

This research article reflects on the issue of policy instruments and their ineffectiveness as the only tool to solve environmental problems, proposing as fundamental element the active participation of communities in the awareness and processes and in the exercise of actions to protect their rights to subsistence and environmental conservation. The overall objective of the research was to analyze the popularization of the right to the conservation of the natural environment as a strategy for environmental education in rural communities. Based on qualitative research, the reality of fishermen who survive from fishing in the swamp of Ayapel was interpreted and a methodological approach from symbolic interactionism was adopted, which enabled explaining environmental issues in the fishers' community and their relationship with fishery resource conservation. Direct observation in the Ayapel Swamp and conversation with 20 fishermen in the area were used as techniques for data collection. From the experiences and realities observed in the fishing community in the Swamp of Ayapel (Colombia), it was possible to design, as a result of the investigation, an educational proposal articulated from dialogic pedagogy and didactics, in order to enable the sustainability of region ecosystems, identifying priorities for management of natural resources and the generation of cultural identity processes from the environment. It is concluded in this study that the popularization of law is a contribution in relation to environmental education as it starts from the idea of carrying out educational processes rooted in contexts and committed to the ideal of a decent life for all.