Unraveling the vegetation in the Ceará State Botanical Park through an educational booklet

Abstract

The Ceará State Botanical Park (Caucaia municipality, Ceará state, northeastern Brazil) preserves a seasonal semideciduous coastal forest vegetation (tableland forest), which is threatened by anthropic action and is mostly unknown to the surrounding communities. Since educational booklets can be useful instruments to facilitate educational activities, we aimed to produce and evaluate the educational booklet “Field Journal: unraveling the vegetation in the Ceará State Botanical Park”. For that, we performed periodic visits to collect data on the local phanerogamic flora and choose the species which would be included in the booklet. All selected plant species were photographed and illustrated; their popular and scientific names are presented, as well as aspects of their morphology and their economic and ecological importance. We briefly describe the history of the conservation unit and the importance of local vegetation. Booklet content and layout were assessed by environmental educators from the Ceará State Botanical Park, and also using international evaluation instruments (SAM - Suitability Assessment of Materials and SMOG - Assessing the Reading Level of Prose). According to these evaluation instruments, the booklet can be read by people who have ten years of formal education and is considered excellent. The environmental educators considered the material to be very important to disseminate contents related to the park, as it not only presents an accessible readability but also is an attractive booklet and encourages preservation of the site. We believe that the booklet will inform, raise awareness and instigate critical thinking, and thus ultimately promote environmental awareness for the conservation and preservation of important ecosystems in the region.