Abstract

SILVA, Simone Affonso da et al. Social Cartography: participatory mapping of the Santa Rita Environmental Protection Area. Educação. Santa Maria [online]. 2024, vol.49, e86986.  Epub Sep 19, 2025. ISSN 1984-6444.  https://doi.org/10.5902/1984644486986.

Among the challenges of managing Environmental Protection Areas (APA, in Portuguese) in Alagoas, we have the population's lack of knowledge about the existence of these protected areas and the low participation of society in the Management Councils. In this context, the EducAPA Project carried out environmental education workshops to reduce these problems, adopting the methodology of action research and social cartography. In this article, we will present the results of the Social Cartography Workshop – Preparation of thematic maps, from the Participatory Mapping of the Santa Rita APA subproject. Its objective was to map socio-environmental, socio-economic, socio-cultural aspects and the potential and demands of this protected area from the perspective of its residents, in addition to promoting cartographic literacy and providing a critical view of the territory. Based on the 24 thematic maps prepared by the 100 Workshop participants, 12 synthesis maps were created using the QGis software by the subproject team, respecting cartographic conventions, thematic cartography techniques and the principles of social cartography. Subsequently, the Exhibition – Perceptions about the Santa Rita APA presented the results of the collective mapping, obtained suggestions for adjustments to the synthesis maps and validated their content. Despite the participants' difficulties in recognizing and characterizing the APA, we concluded that there were advances in their knowledge and on environmental issues and cartographic literacy. Furthermore, divergences and convergences between the collective mapping and that of the Santa Rita APA Management Plan lead us to defend dialogue between community knowledge and technical-scientific knowledge to overcome the gaps in both.

Keywords : Cartographic literacy; Collective mapping; Environmental education.

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