This article brings the main results of a study called "An investigation of environmental education in five states and a biome in Brazil" carried out in four networks of environmental education. The study was commissioned by the Brazilian Network of Environmental Education, and was concluded in November 2004; it was based on data of the diagnostics performed by the following networks: State of São Paulo Network - Repea (SP), Southern Network - Reasul (PR, SC, and RS), Aguapé Network (MT and MS/Pantanal Biome), and Acre Network - Raea (AC). They all fed data into the Brazilian System of Environmental Information of the Ministry for the Environment (Sibea/MMA) in the 2001-2003 period. The objectives of the study were to present a systematization of common categories researched in each network, to discuss the possibility of comparing the features of environmental education for the regions researched on the basis of the consolidation of the data gathered, and finally to highlight challenges, limitations and opportunities perceived in the development of environmental education. The analysis of the data emphasizes aspects such as: the institutions offering activities of environmental education are mainly public and of the civil society and, on a small scale, private; institutions of environmental education, educators/experts, and researchers are concentrated in Southeastern Brazil; activities are mostly of awareness/mobilization, followed by capacitation in environmental education; the concept of environmental education is not understood evenly across networks; there are more projects than programs of environmental education; there is a predominance of short duration courses in the training of environmental educators. The final considerations of the text analyze these tendencies in the light of the political and educational contexts, and suggestions are made for further reflection on the relations between environmental education and its social insertion.
Regional data; Profile of Environmental Education; Networks
