Escolas como infraestruturas ecológicas: caminhos para promover benefícios ecossistêmicos através da Rede Estadual de Educação Profissional do Ceará

Abstract

The research explored technical and regulatory pathways that favor the implementation of Ecological Infrastructures (EIs) in State Vocational Education Schools (EEEPs) in Ceará, as strategic components capable of promoting transformative education, biodiversity, and climate resilience. It was based on the premise that these schools, built in different regions of the state following a model proposed by the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC) and occupying plots of approximately 1.5 hectares, stand as architectural and sociocultural landmarks in the contexts and landscapes in which they are located, educating through their own example of expression and community action. The positive results, in terms of professional training and access to universities for a large portion of graduating students, contrast with the negative environmental impacts that their large infrastructures have produced and continue to reproduce in the territories where they were implemented, amplified by their management model. With descriptive and applied objectives, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) method was adapted to provide a foundation for diagnosing and prescribing mitigating actions for identified problems, generating prognoses. The theoretical-practical foundation investigated the conceptual, operational, and normative supports that underpin schools as ecological infrastructures, through theoretical and bibliographic research. The environmental diagnosis addressed current realities through the physical, biotic, and sociocultural supports that structure the existence of standardized EEEPs (Educational and Professional Education Schools). Observations were conducted both empirically from the local level, which included monitoring projects and actions carried out at the Darcy Ribeiro EEEP between 2019 and 2025, and at the state level, in order to spatially contextualize and identify the occurrence of insertion patterns in the territories, focusing on land use, water resources, and green areas. Finally, the infrastructure of current EEEPs was compared with the new environmental and technical premises identified during the theoretical framework – including important Brazilian legal milestones – resulting in a proposed framework containing suggestions on how the large spaces of the schools can be reconfigured or planned a priori to integrate multifunctional green areas and efficient water

resource management. It has been demonstrated that EEEPs (Environmental Education and Training Establishments) can and should have a positive impact on their territories, becoming landscape and cultural examples capable of generating ecosystem benefits, while simultaneously promoting technical training and contextualized education in coexistence with the realities of the large semi-arid to sub-humid regions of Ceará. To this end, an urgent break from institutional, organizational, and political paradigms is necessary.