INTERPRETIVE TRAILS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN CAATINGA: A PROPOSAL FOR THE AÇU NATIONAL FOREST - RN

The National Forest of Açú – Flona of Açu is located in the municipality of Assú/Rio Grande do Norte, It has Caatinga vegetation and its total territorial area borders the Piató lagoon. The headquarters of this conservation unit – UC is inserted in the urban portion. These characteristics, as well as all the biodiversity and scenic beauty, provide a rich and diverse environment for field classes, ecological trails and for environmental education activities. The Flona of Açu already has actions aimed at environmental education, but activities and actions developed today are insufficient and do not cover its potential, as the unit's management plan highlights. In front of the potential that the trails have for conducting field classes and for environmental education actions related to the caatinga and semi-arid region, this work aims to propose a trail roudmap for the Flona of Açu, highlighting its potential for environmental education through the interpretation of natural elements and the importance of the unit for the preservation of Caatinga. The methodology used for producing the work consisted of the following steps: theoretical framework; field visits in the Flona of Açu; selection and interpretation of attractive points based on the IAPI method (Attractiveness Indicators of Interpretive Points) planning the interpretive trails roadmap based on (Furlan, 2011); analysis and interpretation of data. As a result, the main trail was selected for scripting. Through the IAPI Method, four main points were selected in the attractive infrastructure zone, a rest point and nine attractive points along the trail walk, a visit itinerary was planned based on the interpretation of the selected point. The expected results of the method are important, as well as for different similar results, improving the different characteristics of the different method, improving the different characteristics of the local method.