A user in our translator community has suggested for GBIF.org…
that we also have “Portuguese-Brazilian” (PT-BR). There are significant differences between “Portuguese” and “Brazilian Portuguese”.
Our general sense has been that while there are indeed noticeable differences within the Portuguese speaking-world, they are not a barrier to communication. We hope that volunteers are aware of this and try to avoid distinctly local terminology. For a website like GBIF.org with a high degree of standardized scientific terminology, we think that a single neutral, international Portuguese can serve a global audience.
My two cents. There is no such thing as “neutral, international Portuguese.” Whoever decides to help with the translation, Brazilian or not, will bring your linguistic background and your terms. But you are right, there will be no barrier to the communication. Probably the same with American and British English, isn’t it?
There is an official Orthographic Agreement of the Portuguese Language of 1990, in place and adopted from 2009 by both Brazil and Portugal, that solves most of the issues, and which has been adopted in the current translations. In addition, the automatic translations of Crowdin use the agreement form, so it is easy to follow.
I don’t think differences are deeper to what you find in French or Spanish, so I would agree with both in that will not be a barrier of communication.