Bräuchler Christian et al. : Brazil. 200 years of relations

Starting with a European view of Brazil: The fascination of this world with its colors, smells, and sounds. The diversity of life forms. The unfamiliar way of life. The ambition for political influence and power overseas. The calculation of profits from the cultivation of coffee, sugar, and soy. With this exhibition, which is being held in the 200th year of Brazil’s independency, we aim to offer different viewpoints and to reflect on the mutual relations. An Austrian crown princess signed the Brazilian Declaration of Independence. The natural scientists accompanying her have brought large quantities of minerals, plants, and animals to Austria. For research, but also for economic reasons. Austria and Brazil are still trading partners; the cultivation of soy, for example, which is mainly used as animal food, and livestock cattle breeding is displacing the Amazonian rainforest and destroys biodiversity in other biomes as well. With negative climatic impacts for Brazil and the whole world.
The NHM has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Brazil to intensify joint research. We present research and renaturation projects by scientists and indigenous people. In the exhibition there are many objects from Brazil – unusual animals, historical herbarium specimens, and beautiful drawings. All of those are part of the collections and available to the global scientific community. In the REFLORA project, Brazilian and Austrian scientists worked together on the digitization of the collections. History is not the past – instead, we continue to write the stories of relationships with all our activities.