The present report represents an effort towards the identification of the meaning of nature for different social groups present in the beaches of Gamela and Guadalupe, on the Southern coast of Pernambuco. As its theoretical references, the article embraces Moscovici's theory of social representations, Abric's structural approach and Doise's societal perspective. Data collection and analysis followed a multi-methodological orientation, disclosing the existence of a common field of representations guided by the idea of the nature as source of life, linked to the necessity of environmental preservation. On the other hand, the group's differentiation showed nature as supplier, both in the physical and the sensual direction, related to human beings necessities. The presence of hegemonic representations makes explicit a crisis that confirms the relational space human society-nature in process of transformation in search of new configurations. This study ratifies the importance of the use of social representations theory as a theoretical and methodological instrument aimed at the knowledge of social representations of nature.
social representations; environmental education; environmental management; nature
