Percepção ambiental sobre a biodiversidade em uma região sob influência de atividade mineradora

Abstract

Environmental behavior can be understood by the Theory of Planned Behavior, in which intention is a precursor of behavior and is determined by attitude, perceived behavioral control and subjective norm. We analyzed the environmental perception and the intention of rural landowners around a mining area to recover degraded areas on their properties. We used the model of planned behavior and intent constructs and added external variables (age, schooling and property size) to find out which characteristics explain intent. We also analyzed the relationships between the constructs themselves. We used factor analysis methods to construct the latent variables from a questionnaire. To test the relationships between these variables and between them and the external variables, we used the multiple regression technique. We found that attitude (r2=0.685; F1.30 =57.84; p<0.001), the subjective norm (r²=0.268; F1.30 = 11; p=0.002) and perceived control (r2= 0.154; F1.30 =5.49; p=0.025) have a positive effect on the intention to recover degraded areas, as well as education (t= 2.224; p= 0.034), but the age and size of the property did not affect the intention. We observed the relationship between and external variables and the constructs. It is important to seek strategies that act on the attitude and subjective norm, since such constructs are the ones that most influence intention, and the greater the intention, the greater the chance of this community to perform pro-environment behaviors.