PUBLIC POLICY AND CONFLICTS: OUTLINING PERSPECTIVES IN THE SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AREAS

Abstract

The article analyzes how social agents position themselves regarding the confrontation of conflicts generated in the implementation of a public policy, the Environmental Protection Areas (APAs) in the municipality of Nova Iguaçu, in the region of Baixada Fluminense, the empirical basis of this research. The study, of qualitative nature, assumes that the ways of tackling the conflicts are divergent between the social actors that interact with such areas, depending on the socially constructed relationships with the territory, causing a shock of rationalities about the meaning and the use of such territories. The analysis allowed outlining different perspectives in the socio-environmental relationships in such territories from the specialized literature and the perception of social agents interviewed in the research, and hence, pointing out that there are ways to strengthen the social bases of such territories, overcoming the old principles that conceived the creation of such areas in the world and that have been incorporated into the Brazilian experience. The research concludes that there is a wide arena of conflicts in the APAs studied and that the formulation of public policies on different fronts in the management of such territories is an imperative condition for their sustainability and durability, suggesting the construction of the idea of co-management of this public asset as APAs are, where their inhabitants play a crucial role.