Public Policies and Education for Biodiversity: Brazilian Challenges in a New Global Context

Abstract

This chapter aims to analyze Brazilian education and public policies for environment and biodiversity through three main points of view: (I) legal, by collecting and reviewing laws and other types of norms; (II) organizational and administrative, by considering the regulation of the subject through the creation of agencies, decisions of investments and planning to operate the public environmental policy, through an analysis using Game Theory and Marginalism; and (III) participation by the population, analyzing their contributions to the environmental field. This review allows us to understand the possibilities of environmental education (formal and informal) in the Brazilian context and the challenges that require a transformation of the present paradigm. To illustrate a good example of an integrated environmental education system, the Escola Bosque was chosen, as an internationally awarded initiative for its positive impact on education for biodiversity and the environment. Finally, new trends and some possible changes in public policies for environment and environmental education are suggested.