ISSN 1814-6066

Abstracts from the annual meeting in Jakobstad 2005
with links to full text - if available

Anders Häggblom - Sweden
"Seal hunting and the economical importance for the coastal culture, from the postglacial time to 1900"

Pentti Kronqvist - Finland
"Sealhunters today - Thuleesquimos - at northern Greenland"

Anders Häggblom - Sweden
"The land uplift, flora, fauna and mankind in a changing landscape"

Eirik Granqvist - Finland
"Mammouth - from their discovery and how to bring them the life"
Full text

Lizzy Cox - United Kingdom
"NHM London International Polar Year Initiative"

Olga Gvozdeva - Russian Federation
State Darwin Museum, Moscow
"Ancient traditions in modern interpretation in a museum of natural history"
Full text

Adrian Norris - United Kingdom
Leeds City Museum
"The Collector's Tale - The importance of secondary documentation in telling a good story"
Full text

In the field of natural history the object is very often only a prop which helps to tell a story, one which depends on the curator, the type of display and the philosophy of the museum itself or the mythology which surrounds the objects themselves. There is a myth in many museums that the object is king, when in fact in most museums the myth itself is more likely to be revered. The iconic status of specific objects can, in some cases, have more to do with wishful thinking than fact and should, therefore, not be confused by facts. Most museums contain at least one object, and sometimes many, in which the story surrounding the object, true or false, is far more important than the object itself. This may vary from the Goliath Beetle, whose only claim to be included within the museum's collection is that it flew into a cricketer whilst at the wicket, killing itself and knocking the batsman out, to a collection of miscellaneous objects collected by a famous, or infamous, personality. Much of this interpretation is based on intangible secondary documentation, which would not stand up to the rigours of scientific investigation. However, the mythology surrounding an object can be just as important, if not more so, from the public point of view, as the scientifically provable. The tendency by some curators to ignore the myth and concentrate only on the factual has helped to alienate the public, resulting in dwindling visitor numbers to many natural history displays within our museums. Most of our visitors have a romantic streak to their nature and a good story can be far better as a means of communication than all the facts in the world.

Eric Dorfman - New Zealand
"Interpreting ecological process: intangible natural heritage and the Kererü, the native wood pigeon of New Zealand"
Kereru Discovery Project

Kari Hallantie - Finland
"KVARKEN ARCHIPELAGO – the first World Nature Heritage of Finland?"
Presentation of the project

Istvan Matskasi - Hungary
"The Hungarian Natural History Museum and the Research of National parks"

Elena Chusova - Russian Federation
"The Moscow Red Book plants and animals in indoor and outdoor museum expositions"

The Timiryazev State Museum of Biology is diversified museum of natural history created in 1922 under the direction of academician B.M.Zavadovskii. The main exhibition of museum occupies a floor space of 900 square m. and didicated to such division of modern biology and ecology as evolution of life on Earth; anthropogenesis; diversity of present-day animal and plant kingdom; plant, animal and human anatomy and physiology; genetics; the foundations of ecology and enviromental protection. There is no in Russia another museum such as this in a variety of subjects. There are more than 60 excursion topics supported by the main exhibition. In 2004 exhibition "Red Book pages" has been designed. It contains herbarium and models of endangered plant specie of Moscow. The exhibition updated several times a year. Moreover, all endangered animal, plant and fungi specie of Moscow Red Book are highlighted with distinguished red tags in museum exhibitions. There is a Red Book page number in the on the tag besides Russian and Latin species name where the information about this species can be found. Additionally, specie area information in Moscow is presented in each case. Detailed information for each species in the exhibition has been summarized in brochure. An outdoor plant exhibition of live plants has been open for the public near museum. It presents complex natural plant societies of Moscow- about 100 plant specie of Moscow Red Book. This exhibition is still being formed as well as excursions based on it.

Byung-Hoon Lee - South Korea
"Nature Museums in Korea and east Asian Countries"

Korea is in keen need of conserving her nature and environment threatened by rapid urbanization and industrialization. The Korean biota has been poorly documented, mainly, due to extreme shortage of natural history infrastructures. In order to improve the situation a national campaign asking the government to set up the National Museum of Natural History has been made during the last more than a decade. That endeavor would be made meaningful only when the museum is established as national center and engaged in teaching environmental humility and reverence for life. It becomes of vital importance to study nature and educate people, in particular, in this period of humanity at stake under the threat of nature degradation and manipulation of life by genetic engineering. The poor situation of natural history infrastructure in Korea as well as in the East Asian countries is reviewed in the world context, putting emphasis of building up cultural and natural identities of the states in the region.

HanHee Cho - South Korea
"The new Gyeryongsan Natural History Museum in South Korea"
Full text

Xing-Bao Jin - China
"Be influential to people and community for a harmonious and sustainable society"

We are living in a country with high speed of development, in a city with booming economy. The fast growing economy is promoting society advancement in many ways, but also has brought some problems. The most urgent ones are over-consuming on natural resources and the isolation of citizen from nature.
It is believable that the future of a harmonious society and sustainable development depends on a comprehensive and empathetic understanding the way nature works and a sense of responsibility to all life. It is the core value of a natural history museum to engage people's curiosity and encourage their enjoyment of the nature. The urban dwellers' life quality could be improved physically and spiritually as well. Making a museum influential to people and the local community and becoming one indispensable part of a society is our main aim. This is the key point that we museum professionals should think about. An influential museum is a spiritual oasis for a gray city.
The intention to rebuild the natural history museum in Shanghai is not only another symbol of the city's strength in economy, but the awakening awareness of being harmonious with nature. We have to think about many questions on a visitor-oriented way. What should be a museum look like, Oriental or western style, or an experimental piece of a foreign designer? Can we involve local community to care our museum at the very beginning? What is a suitable size for a museum in terms of public function? An environment friendly building itself is a good exhibit, but can we afford? Is it possible to plan outdoor areas as a nature restoration corner for city children to explore and play?
Ideas as interactivity, learning by doing, edutainment are effective approaches for learning actively, but not passively stimulating sensory organs only. Traditional Chinese culture has many philosophical thinking to understand the nature, which should be encouraged to be represented in the exhibition to help people in considering issues and ethical questions related to science and technology.
Collections are essential to a natural history museum, but only when the information from the collections is available to the public. It is not the number of collection itself that make a competitive museum, but qualified scientists and museum professionals, who are the real pillars of a museum.

Anna Omedes - Spain
"The Diversity of LIFE" - about a new type of exhibition"

Travelling exhibition produced by the Natural History Museum of Barcelona and co-produced by the Universal Forum of Cultures Barcelona 2004 and the Science Park of Granada.
Conserving biodiversity is critical for human survive. This exhibition aims to create a fascination for biological diversity, to explain the complexity of life and to promote love and respect for it. But how can we create or transmit the beauty of life in an artificial environment? By highlighting the museum's collection, displaying it in the midst of illustrations, holographs, natural backgrounds, documents, texts, visual poetry, etc.
The main part of the exhibition is a SCENIC AREA, oval-shaped, set up around an oval-shaped metallic framework with walls and ceiling of fine mesh screening. Permits 30 visitors at a time for scheduled showings that are set at 20-minute intervals. This area contains materials, elements and collection items. They are revealed to the public as if by magic by means of technological systems. New theatrical and audiovisual technology is incorporated. A computer network connected to multiple retro projectors immerses the public in a 360º audiovisual display. The scenes are presented on different areas so the public circulate inside the theatre, while the explanatory script surprises and envelops them.
The showing starts from the perception that humans have on the diversity of life through our senses, presents the historical determinants of the continental drift, explains how we classify and order the biodiversity into five kingdoms, describes the five major extinctions on the Earth, explains the five causes for the Sixth Extinction resulting from human intervention and explains the five values that define the great capital of biodiversity.
In the CINEMA AREA the film "Making peace with the earth" shows five examples of local action with a global response: RIET VELL, Ecological agriculture in the Ebro Delta (Spain); GALAPAGOS, Defence against invasive species in the Galapagos Islands (Equator); COSTA RICA, a choice: tourist biodiversity; SIERRA DE SEGURA, Sustainable production of wood (Spain); DEHRADUN, against seed privatisation, Uttaranchal (India).
In the interactive REFLECTION AREA people are invited to do simple things that will benefit the environment and the conservation of biodiversity such as "Calculate your ecological footprint", "Curb illegal trafficking of species", "Plant a tree by clicking in Internet", "Recycle the plastic cartridge of your PC" or "Buy Fair Trade products".

Olivier Retout - Belgium
"CASTEX and the travelling exhibition 'Fatal Attraction' "

Tilman Haug - Germany
"New approaches in pest control of dermoplastic models using low temperatures"

As far as received

July 2005
ICOM - NATHIST Gerhard Winter [Ed.]