This master s research seeks to present a summary of protected areas dimension in Brazil, their main management tools and reflections about these tools contributions to environmental education programs, with focus on the Serra dos Órgãos National Park (PARNASO). For this purpose, it outlines programs run in protected áreas of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro state, where one may verify the centrality of playful activities, as axis of the work with children and youngsters, to sow empathy and engagement with the cause of nature conservation. Thisresearch aims to point out the importance of continued efforts to take children from private and public schools, from kindergarten to high school, to engage inplayful activities in preserved nature. When the full potential of protected areas is harnessed for children s development and education, in particular by helping them forge emotional bonds with space, which transform space into place and are essential for human memory, then new ways of fostering empathy and engagement with nature conservation can come to light. These attributes kindle and excite curiosity, the desire to learn and discover, boosting the learning process in an organic, spontaneous, and integrated way.