Collaborative Approaches to Education for Disaster Risk Reduction in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

The municipalities in the Mountain region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, are highly susceptible to landslides and climate-related catastrophes due to their geography and land use, resulting in severe impacts on local communities. Historical tragedies from climatic events, such as those in February 2022 and January 2011, have intensified in recent years, driven by climate change and increasing social inequalities. These incidents highlight the need to shift the paradigm of disaster risk management, as reflected in legal and institutional reforms, including the Brazilian National Policy for Civil Defense and Protection from 2012. This policy promotes collaboration and intersectoral integration, aiming to strengthen education and community participation in disaster preparedness and management. In this context, to facilitate the sharing of experiences and promote intersectoral collaboration for disaster risk reduction in the state of Rio de Janeiro, the Federal Center for Technological Education of Rio de Janeiro (CEFET/RJ) and the Global Association for Resilience, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Environment (GARDE) established a technical cooperation in 2023, focusing on community participation and the territorialization of international guidelines and best practices for disaster risk reduction. This paper explores the experiences and challenges of the first two years of this collaboration, involving hundreds of young students, professionals, researchers, public officials, and civil society representatives across three municipalities in Rio de Janeiro.