Look up: how to sensitize public managers to biodiversity conservation

Abstract

The environmental team of the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology, in Brazil, is challenged to turn the institution aware of the importance of biodiversity conservation when it realizes that its management doesn’t prioritize the minimizing the negative impacts of its operations on the environment. It happens that its Laboratory Campus is just at the meeting of three conservation units and promotes the connectivity between remnants of the Atlantic Forest, in the fragmented periurban landscape of Rio de Janeiro outskirts. Thus, issues such as waste disposal, effluents treatment and external areas maintenance can not be neglected and should include the recovery of degraded protected areas along riverbanks and on slopes. In order to gain space in the internal media, and in the institutional agenda, the team promotes plantations, trails and lectures, open to employees, but aimed at making managers aware of legislation compliance. With the dissemination of the event and its results, it reaches everyone, below and above in the institutional hierarchy. This way, it is expected that managers will be more committed to environmental issues. This paper presents an overview of Environmental Education in Inmetro, discusses alternatives to consolidated practices and assesses its application, allowing for its future improvement.