With the growth of concern about global environmental change, many recognize the importance of understanding how the public comes to perceive threats to the environment and biodiversity and to be ready to act upon their perception. This understanding is valuable to countries grappling with environmental issues, to policy makers seeking to avoid unproductive conflicts, and to researchers dealing with questions about the environment and technological risk. This proposal is timely both in addressing a current issue of prime importance and in undertaking investigation of attitudes toward the environment and risk in a developing country at a critical moment when environmental awareness is changing. A highly qualified investigator with extensive experience in Brazil will collaborate with Brazilian scientists and technicians in studying cultural values and social attitudes toward environmental risk at several contrasting sites. By interviewing key informants and by conducting survey research, the investigator and his Brazilian associates will gather data on emerging ecological awareness. This data should be of use in Brazil and elsewhere for coping with environmental issues. It should also contribute to an ongoing international discussion about how social and cultural attitudes shape judgments about environmental risk. In addition, this project will support the training of researchers and the research infrastructure in a developing country and contribute to efforts toward preserving biodiversity. This proposal is a reasonable request for support to enable a leading scholar and associates to address the problem of environmental awareness and the readiness to act on that awareness. The principal investigator and project associates are well qualified; institutional support is very good; the research plan is well conceived; and the findings will be valuable to lay people, policy makers, and research specialists in a number of fields. Support is highly recommended.
