Brazilian Nature exposition opens in Heidelberg

Promoted by FAPESP and Heidelberg University, an exposition covering Brazilian biodiversity was inaugurated in the German city.

By  Fábio de Castro

Agência FAPESP – FAPESP and the Heidelberg University Museum inaugurated the exposition “Brazilian Nature—Mystery and Destiny” in Heidelberg, Germany, on February 2, covering the world of knowledge about Brazilian biodiversity.

Promoted in partnership with the Heidelberg Botanical Gardens and University Library, the exposition will be open to the public from February 3 to June 29.

The main reference of the exposition is Flora Brasiliensis, the work of German botanist Carl Philipp von Martius (1794-1868), which remains the most complete study of Brazilian flora 171 years after its first volume was published.

With reproductions of images, illustrations and explanatory texts, the 37 panels comprising the exposition were based on data from FAPESP-funded projects, including Flora Brasiliensis On-line and Revisited, Flora of the Phanerogams of the State of São Paulo and the BIOTA-FAPESP program.

Representatives of the three projects helped compile the content of the exposition, which had a successful run at the Berlin Botanical Gardens in 2008, at Bremen’s Haus der Wissenschaft in 2009 and at Leipzig University and the Woodrow Wilson Center (Washington, DC) in 2011.

The opening ceremony of the exposition featured Matthias Untermann, director of the University Museum at Heidelberg; Marcus Koch, director of the Botanical Gardens; Professor Luiz de Queiroz from the Universidade de São Paulo School of Agriculture (Esalq/USP); and Luciano Martins Verdade, one of the BIOTA-FAPESP program coordinators.

During the ceremony, Untermann spoke to the high quality of the exposition, which reflects the excellence of Brazilian scientific production in the field of biodiversity. “We thank FAPESP for the initiative of this exposition, which presents such a beautiful and interesting view of Brazilian biodiversity,” he said.

The museum director also pointed out a particular characteristic of the exposition. “Even though this is a traveling exposition already shown in other German cities, it gained a special aspect in Heidelberg. We were able to aggregate some original volumes of Martius’ Flora Brasiliensis, tying it all into history”, he said.

Koch, who is a professor specialized in Biology at Heidelberg University, said that the exposition not only reflects the immense diversity of organisms in Brazil, but also the quality of research in the area of biodiversity.

“It is notable to observe the broad gamut of different organisms studied, indicating the originality and quality of Brazilian research on biodiversity, which reflects the unique character of nature in the country,” he said to Agência FAPESP.

According to Koch, biological diversity is a central topic in both countries. “In Germany, we have had a great loss of biodiversity with the destruction of ecosystems such as wetlands, plains and forests. So national biodiversity conservation, restoration and development strategies were developed. On the other side, biodiversity in Brazil plays a fundamental role in the functioning of the global ecosystem. This is why the debate over biodiversity is central in both countries,” he said.

Verdade presented a lecture on the role of FAPESP, and in particular, the BIOTA program in studies on biodiversity and the formation of human resources to manage it.

“This management currently includes not only the research itself, but also the actions necessary for the conservation of endangered species, the sustainable use of species with economic potential, the control of damaging species and the monitoring of the rest. This also includes the necessity to transform the knowledge generated into public policy,” he affirmed.

According to Verdade, BIOTA-FAPESP has achieved excellent results in all these aspects. However, there are ever-increasing challenges, especially in the management of the innumerous and inevitable conflicts between the production of domestic species and the conservation of wild species.

“This imposes the need for the continual generation of wealth by agriculture within the context of the conservation of biodiversity and vice versa: biodiversity conservation within the context of agricultural production,” said Verdade.

A three-tiered exposition

The Flora Brasiliensis On-line and Revisitada project, which makes up the first part of the exposition, represents a continuation of Martius’ work, whose last volume was published after the author’s death in 1906.

The project made Martius’ entire work available on the Internet in 2006, which consisted of 10,207 pages of text describing nearly 23,000 species and approximately 4,000 illustrations. Flora Brasiliensis On-line and Revisitada include updated versions of the original nomenclature that Martius used, and they include species described after its publication, with new information and recent illustrations.

The project was financed by a partnership between FAPESP, Fundação Vitae and Natura Cosmetics, and it was carried out by the Reference Center on Environmental Information (CRIA), the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) and the Missouri Botanical Garden in the United States. Flora Brasiliensis On-line is available at: http://florabrasiliensis.cria.org.br.

The second part of the exposition is dedicated to the “Flora of the Phanerogams of the State of São Paulo” project, begun in 1993 with the participation of over 200 researchers. The project draws together scientists from the USP, the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), the Botanical, Forestry and Agronomy Institutes, and the São Paulo City Department of Parks and Green Spaces. Researchers from Embrapa, other Brazilian states and other nations also contributed.

The third part of the exposition goes beyond the limits of botany and deals with biodiversity in a more general manner. This part follows the lines of the BIOTA_FAPESP program, whose results have been applied as an instrument for environmental preservation throughout São Paulo state.

The digitized panels from the Brazilian Nature exposition can be seen, with Portuguese, English and German subtitles, at: www.fapesp.br/publicacoes/braziliannature.