Flora Brasiliensis and the Anthropocene: What Does This Work Tell Us About Our Era?
The landscapes depict the paradoxes that underlie the Western idea of nature. Alongside the sublime representation of the natural world, there are also scenes of environmental degradation.
By CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Luiza F. A. de Paula, Núria Manresa, Elisa Marques
Flora Brasiliensis: Vol. I, Part I, Fasc. unplaced Column 1000CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Tabulae Physiognomicae
Flora Brasiliensis presents, in its first volume, the Tabulae Physiognomicae, a section with 59 landscape lithographic plates from various Brazilian phytogeographic regions.
Records of the landscapes
The plates in Flora Brasiliensis have left a record of what our biomes were like and their state of conservation at the time, and allow us to compare the past, present, and even the future. On the map, the different biomes are colored from Martius’ perspective.
Carl Friedrich Philipp Von Martius (1794-1868)
The naturalist Martius, editor of Flora Brasiliensis, despite recording numerous pristine landscapes, commented on the devastation after the arrival of Portuguese colonizers. Martius therefore already foresaw future problems and predicted the challenges of the Anthropocene.
Vol. I, Part I, Fasc. See Urban Plate 41 (1906)CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Anthropocene
The term Anthropocene is used by some scientists to describe the most recent period in the Earth’s history.
There is no precise, officially assigned start date, but many researchers believe it began in the late 18th century when human activities began to have a significant global impact on the Earth’s climate and the functioning of its ecosystems.
Flora Brasiliensis: Vol. I, Part I, Fasc. See Urban Plate 16 (1906)CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Exploratory force
Often in the background, but also as the protagonist in some images, are scenes of burning, monocultures, and deforestation highlighting the exploratory force of the colonial enterprise.
Conflicting images
Juxtaposed, the images produce a contrast between representations of abundance and scarcity, power and fragility, sometimes of humans, sometimes of nature. Admired or dominated, nature is always external, separate from humans.
Vol. I, Part I, Fasc. See Urban Plate 44 (1906)CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Coffee plantations
The lithograph (1855) by August Brandmayer based on a drawing from nature (1836) by Johann Steinmann provides a good idea of the formation of the coffee plantations in the Serra dos Órgãos, on the road to Teresópolis.
Absence of large trees
Note the deforested area on the right of the image. Martius was already concerned about the poverty of the soil, which, after a few harvests, was abandoned and replaced by scrubland characterized by the absence of “original slow-growing large trees”.
Flora Brasiliensis: Vol. I, Part I, Fasc. See Urban Plate 21 (1906)CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Burning
The practice of burning was also depicted in Flora Brasiliensis. Martius made a point of addressing the harm caused to the environment by frequent burning, characteristic of Brazilian management when clearing natural vegetation for planting.
Regarding deforestation for the cultivation of exotic species (e.g., bananas and agaves, shown in the images), in the book Travels in Brazil, Martius wrote: “Due to the civilizing activity of this rapidly progressing country, nature is being transformed in many ways.” He urged further investigations into the flora and fauna of the biomes to begin promptly, “before the destructive and transforming hand of man has obstructed or diverted the course of nature.”
In the drive to build a unique and ever newer world, we forget about, or perhaps have given up on, truly inhabiting the planet. The focus is on designing, producing, planning, leveling, building, subdividing, and urbanizing. From now on, how can we take into account more than just human interest? How can we come up with methods of cohabitation that include a network of alliances, which are today relegated to the background?
Vol. I, Part I, Fasc. See Urban Plate 18 (1906)CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Techniques in symbiosis
Contrary to the exploratory logic, we now know, through archeological research, that in various Brazilian phytogeographic regions, there were environments cultivated by the original inhabitants using sophisticated techniques in symbiosis with other species.
Flora Brasiliensis: Vol. I, Part I, Fasc. See Urban Plate 35 (1906)CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
How can we inhabit, experience, cultivate, and create the world?
In the midst of a world that encourages immediacy, the possibility of research nurtures processes of contemplation and deep reflection. It is an openness to difference that can strengthen multiple forms of existence (resistance).
Flora Brasiliensis: Vol. I, Part I, Fasc. See Urban Plate 36 (1906)CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Legacy
Flora Brasiliensis has left us a legacy to reflect on, learning from other experiences, of relationships between humans and non-humans, which are made up of complex networks. Where do these pictures take us?
Their depths, edges, and things we can't see in the picture
In their depths, on the edges, or just outside what these images capture, can other kinds of relationships between humans and non-humans, other ways of living and conceiving life, be evoked?
Flora Brasiliensis: Vol. I, Part I, Fasc. See Urban Plate 9 (1906)CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Flora Brasiliensis: collaborative network
The same collaborative spirit that produced Flora Brasiliensis can inspire us to create networks of solidarity where politics, economy, culture, and ecology walk together, establishing other, more diverse connections that reveal ways to stay in our world, not leave it behind.
Flora Brasiliensis: collaborative network
What clues do the images from Flora Brasiliensis give us about how biodiversity was experienced, cared for, and created before colonization? How can these images help us imagine possibilities to create, together, a biodiverse, healthy space for humans and non-humans alike?
Research and writing: Luiza F. A. de Paula (Federal University of Minas Gerais / CRIA), Núria Manresa (Federal University of Minas Gerais ), Elisa Marques (Federal University of Minas Gerais )
Assembly: Luiza F. A. de Paula
Review: João Renato Stehmann (Federal University of Minas Gerais ), Renato De Giovanni (CRIA)
References: Flora Brasiliensis (http://florabrasiliensis.cria.org.br/opus), Travels in Brazil (https://www2.senado.leg.br/bdsf/handle/id/573991)
Additional information: http://florabrasiliensis.cria.org.br/stories
Acknowledgments: All the authors of the photos and characters in the story
*Every effort has been made to credit the images, audio, and video and correctly recount the episodes narrated in the exhibitions. If you find errors and/or omissions, please email contato@cria.org.br
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