Ecologia, cooperação internacional e configuração biogeográfica do Brasil: Pierre Dansereau e o acordo científico Brasil-Canadá nos anos 1940

Abstract

The article analyzes work done in Brazil by Canadian ecologist Pierre Dansereau (1911-2011) under a scientific cooperation agreement between the Intellectual Cooperation Division of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Canadian Embassy, signed in 1944. Dansereau, a leading figure in twentieth-century ecology, came to Brazil in 1945 as director of the Quebec Province Biogeography Service. His proposed ecological research plan called for the organization of scientific expeditions, specialized staff training, and future international cooperation with such Brazilian institutions as the National Museum, the National Geography Council, and the Oswaldo Cruz Institute. His stay in Brazil affords an opportunity to analyze the interrelations between the geopolitics of Brazilian developmentalism, Quebec nationalism, Pan-Americanism as an intellectual movement, and the attempt to establish a francophone research network in biogeography, ecology, and plant sociology.