Many Heads of States and Governments will meet in the coming days to debate sustainable development and green economy. This discussion, however, is not restricted to world leaders.

Federal universities students have gathered with primary school students and people from the communities to discuss sustainability in practice. In and out of school, the students learned to preserve and include, organize projects and to raise the environmental awareness among people in their communities.

The groups from the Tourism Observatories of the University of Brasilia, for example, organized management committees formed by representatives from the cities of Cavalcante and Cristalina, in the state of Goiás, and Brasilia (FD). The community representatives were trained to study the region and to draft a socio-economic, cultural and touristic profile.

“The results of these studies are very good. The communities end up realizing where they need to invest, change, adapt. And, as a result, tourism gets more demand and professionalization”, the Observatory Group’s coordinator Elisângela Machado explained.

The Tourism Department of the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), on the other hand, created two projects: the ‘Educazer’, which involves students from the primary school, and the ‘Serração’, in which workshops are held to discuss topics related to the local capabilities of the municipality of Quatro Barras, in the state of Paraná. 

In Rio de Janeiro, the Research and Tourism and Social Inclusion Expansion Group (TUris) of the Fluminense Federal University (UFF) created  the project “Visitas e Viagens Técnicas” (Technical Trips and Visits). The objective of the project is to use tourism as a social inclusion tool and as an incentive to environmental conservation.

Visits are made to conservation units such as the National Park of Tijuca, Itatiaia National Park, State Park of Serra da Tiririca so that, for example, routes are created inside the parks without endangering the forest or polluting the park’s premises.