Environmental Education as a Foundation for Ecological Citizenship: Convergences among Agroecology, Environmental Rights and Social Participation

Abstract

Environmental education has increasingly moved beyond the transmission of ecological knowledge toward the development of competencies related to participation, rights awareness, territorial responsibility, and collective action. This study analyzes environmental education as a foundation for ecological citizenship by examining its convergences with agroecology, environmental rights, and social participation. A qualitative documentary review was conducted using academic literature published up to 2023, with priority given to peer-reviewed sources from environmental law, environmental studies, environmental education, agroecology, and socio-legal research. The analysis identified four interrelated dimensions: environmental education as a basis for ecological competence; environmental rights as the normative structure of ecological citizenship; agroecology as a territorial expression of socioecological responsibility; and social participation as the mechanism that transforms knowledge and rights into collective environmental agency. The findings indicate that environmental education is necessary but insufficient when limited to awareness or individual behavior. Its transformative capacity increases when ecological knowledge is linked to environmental rights, access to information, participation in decision-making, territorial practices, and collective organization. Agroecology emerges as a particularly relevant field because it integrates environmental learning with food systems, biodiversity, local knowledge, territorial autonomy, and community action. The study concludes that ecological citizenship should be understood as a multidimensional process based on the interaction among knowledge, rights, responsibilities, territorial practices, and participation. This interdisciplinary framework contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of environmental education as a formative process capable of supporting citizens who can interpret socioecological problems, exercise environmental rights, participate in governance, and contribute to sustainable and socially just territorial transformations.