INTRODUCTION

The Graduate Program in Development and Environment – PRODEMA (in the initials in Portuguese) of the Federal University of Paraíba, aims to train professionals with an interdisciplinary basis in the field of environmental sciences. The professionals are apt to handle environmental issues arising from unbalances of the relations between society, nature, and development, supported by the scientific-philosophical paradigms that emerged with the environmental crises.

The first challenged faced by PRODEMA was the practice of interdisciplinary operations, that continues in the Program’s agenda, but relying on the cumulated experiment throughout more than 20 years of its existence. PRODEMA has faced new environmental challenges, converting the interdisciplinary discourse into practice. The Master Program of PRODEMA UFPB adopted as its concentration area the Development and Environment. Our egresses have the capacity of acting in activities of planning, diagnosis, zoning, monitoring, and environmental recovery. They also can work mediating processes of socio-environmental conflicts, minimizing the environmental impacts provoked by the current development model. There is, also, a constant preoccupation with the maintenance of the ecosystem services, very important to the conservation of human life and nature. In this sense, PRODEMA seeks to contribute to knowledge production in the field of environmental sciences and also taking the commitment with the transformations in the relationship society and nature that provide a less catastrophic scenario in the future.

PRODEMA takes part in a regional network of graduate programs in Development and Environment, which currently reunites public Northeastern seven Higher Education Institutions in the Northeast of Brazil. The programs’ members of such a network share part of the curricular structure related to the mandatory courses, developing various joint academic activities. PROGRAMA UFPB’s master program has three lines of research: 1) RELATIONS SOCIETY-NATURE AND SUSTAINABILITY; 2) PLANNING, MANAGEMENT, AND SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES; 3) TECHNOLOGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. These lines are the same as the doctoral program’s lines, however the Master and the Doctoral are different academic programs.

The integration with the network is kept through Integrating Seminars, held annually, rotating the host Institution among the participating Institutions. Also the exchange of the annual production and the performance of cooperation between the members have contributed to the integration. The maturation of the integration and cooperation enabled the opening of the doctoral program in the format of association, creating closer exchange strategies among the programs, such as the circulation of professors and students for the course offer.

The knowledge generation and training of professionals oriented to the regional socio-environmental theme have allowed the establishment of dialogues and partnerships with the civil society and local policies. The insertion of the environmental perspective to the analysis of the socio-economic processes requires the critical elaboration to the models of economic growth based on the exhausting exploitation of natural resources. Still, we discuss the construction of a science permeated by environmental ethics, besides having social solidarity in the search for an alternative civilizational model.

Currently, PRODEMA UFPB – Master level has score 4 by the CAPES’ evaluation.

HISTORY

The proposal for the creation of an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional graduate program oriented to the issue of development and environment began at the end of the decade of 1980 as an initiative of the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL). After the discussion of some cases and the elaboration of this graduate program in the network, a proposal was presented during the 54^th Plenary Meeting of the Council for Rectors of the Brazilian Universities, held in March 1992, at the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS).

In such an event, a Memorandum of Understanding aiming at the creation of PRODEMA was signed by eighteen Northeastern University Institutions, with the main goal of contributing scientifically for the harmonization of the economic and social development, the nature conservation, and the environmental quality of the Northeastern region. From the eighteen University Institutions that initially signed, six universities adhered and continued with the protocol: The Federal University of Alagoas (AFAL), the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), the State University of Paraíba (UEPB), the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UERN). Subsequently, the following universities joined the network: State University of Santa Cruz – UESC (Ilhéus-BA), the Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), and the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE).

PRODEMA of the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB) was approved by the UFPB council in 1995 (Resolução n.8 do CONSUNI, from 8/8/95). After approval, the process was analyzed by CAPES and the course was authorized on 20/09/1996 (CAPES No. Ref. CTG / 196). The recognition by the Ministry of Education (MEC) was by Ordinance No. 132 / 1996. In 1996, therefore, it was started the first class in partnership with the State University of Paraíba (UEPB).

Throughout the process, some Universities joint this network, and other left it. With regard to the UFPB participation, there was a cooperation between UFPB and UEPB, with vacancies offered jointly for fifteen years. In 2012, UFPB started to offer separately the Master and Doctoral courses.

The strengthening of the Master stimulated the creation of the Doctorate. Since 2010, a Full Association constituted of five Higher Education Institutions members of the PRODEMA network got the authorization by CAPES to offer courses at the doctoral level. All efforts were made in the following years for the inclusion of UFPB in such an Association. PRODEMA-UFPB was able to join the Full Association in October 2011 and finally got the authorization by CAPES on 02/01/2012 for the opening of the doctoral program in the Network, beginning its first group in 2013. The Master's and Doctorate Programs are different, but with much in common and the Network currently has seven Partner Universities (UFPB, UFRN, UFS, UFPI, UFC, UESC, UFPE).