Caracterização e percepção ambiental da comunidade na zona de amortecimento do Parque Estadual Vitório Piassa, Pato Branco - PR

Abstract

The Conservation Units (CUs) are understood as being a territorial space and its environmental resources, and the institutions by the public power, whose main principle is a conservation system, while guaranteeing protection. The State Parks obligatory need a Damping Zone (DZ). The ZA consists of the surroundings of a CU, where activities should be submitted to restrictions, which are not able to become negative. One of the difficulties for the protection of the natural environments is the perception and values that people bring with it. The studies that evaluate the environmental perception of individuals serve as educational and transformative instruments, when they provide the conditions for reflection on the relation between society and the environment. The study object of this work is the community belonging to the DZ of the Vitório Piassa State Park (VPSP), Pato Branco - PR. We diagnosed the environmental perception of the community around the Park and the social actors involved. The DZ was established with a 500 m buffer, and then the land use and occupation was classified. A questionnaire on environmental perception was applied in the Park DZ community, sampling 143 interviewees. With this data a multivariate statistical analysis was carried out by the techniques of factorial and discriminant analysis. Through the factorial analysis it was possible to list the most significant questions of the research that were about: i) location of the Park; ii) importance of green areas; iii) leisure; iv) environmental education; v) research and studies in these areas; vi) agreement with the implementation and infrastructure of the Park. Discriminant analysis showed that there were distinctions in answers according to the social classes evaluated (sex, age, residence, family income, schooling and occupation), some more evident, such as the local of residence of the interviewees. This information can be useful for a better management of the Park. Although the VPSP is an Integral Protection Conservation Unit located within an urban area, it is not simply a green area. The management organs as well as the population of the municipality should be stimulated for the conservation of the nature in the Park, by its use through environmental education, ecotourism and contemplation of the nature, and not simply aim at the mass leisure of high environmental impact.