The Immerse Amazonia Summer School

In alignment with The University of Birmingham Brazil Institute's Engage Amazonia programme, the University of Birmingham and Museo Goeldi launched a two-week binational summer school in Caxiuanã, in the heart of the Amazon.

Immerse brought together eight students from the University of Birmingham, eight students from Belém, and eight students from the riverine community for an immersive educational experience. Through a challenge-based, co-production of knowledge approach, students worked collaboratively to devise solutions to pressing global environmental challenges, writing essays and recording short films on the impact of these solutions on a local and international scale. In this way, Immerse Amazonia promotes youth engagement with global environmental matters, including:

• Tropical ecology
• Public health
• Renewable energy
• Green transport
• Traditional knowledge
• Biodiversity
• Inequality
• Migration
• Global Change
• Youth Geography
• Tropical Disease

Programme Structure 

The programme comprised three phases:

• Preparation for the Amazon 
• Immersion in the Amazon
• Reflections  

Preparing for the experience

Students from Pará and from the University of Birmingham attended six pre-immersion sessions to prepare for their rigorous immersive learning experience in Caxiuanã. Sessions covered topics ranging from decolonial studies to researching marginalised groups. Each student also received media training, where students not only learned to document their travels intentionally but to speak diplomatically regarding sensitive issues, such as global public health inequalities. This training was pivotal when it came time for students to conduct interviews for media outlets and helped students communicate their experiences in both a compelling and educational manner

Immersion Itinerary 

Reception at the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi (MPEG), Belém 

The Museu Goeldi is the oldest scientific institution in the Amazon area focused on the study of natural and socio-cultural systems within the Amazon basin. It encompasses a 5.4 hectare zoological and botanical park, a 10 hectare research campus and the Ferreira Penna scientific station established in 1998 in Caxiuanã national forest. As such, it represents not only a culturally significant destination for students to visit but also an academically esteemed institution home renowned for its extensive research into the earth and environmental sciences.

Visit to Combu Island, Belém

Combu island is the fourth largest island in Belém situated just a 10-minute boat ride from the City Centre. The island comprises several environmental protection areas (APA) and boasts breathtaking, vibrant flora surrounding calm, narrow rivers known as igarapés.

Home to many riverside communities, the harvest of forest by-products such as Açaí  and mandioca (Cassava) serves as a major source of income. The island is even renowned for its artisanal chocolate production, highlighting the value of traditional Amazonian cocoa. Hence, students visited the Casa do Chocolate Filha do Combu to gain more of an insight into authentic cocoa extraction and chocolate production.

Travel to Ferreira Penna Station, Caxiuanã 

Immerse Students and Staff took a 16-hour commercial boat from Belém to Portel followed by a 6-hour speed boat ride from Portel to the Estação Ferreira Penna, Caxiuanã. Students were able to experience sleeping in hammocks on the commercial boat and eventually reached a total travel time of 22 hours by sea! See how they got on below. 

Fieldwork at the Scientific Station, Caxiuanã

The Belém and University of Birmingham Immerse student cohort joined their student counterparts in Caxiuanã, who were excited to share insights into life in Caxiuanã. Together the students partook in several engaging ice-breaker challenges to build rapport amongst the group

One such challenge involved the students standing in a circle, each holding a vertical rod. Following a cue, everyone was tasked to let go of their own rod and move one position to the right to catch their partners rod before it fell to the ground. The challenge required students to move quickly, stay alert, and rely on one another to prevent the rods from falling to the ground. In principle, students learned the importance of teamwork, timing, and trust, qualities vital to building strong rapport among the cohort.

Subsequently, the cohort was split into five groups and each given a list of Sustainable Development Goals to address. Collaboratively, the students were asked to brainstorm creative solutions to an SDG of their choice, encouraged to take into consideration the impact of this solution and how they could develop the scale of this throughout their completion of the programme. 

Visit to the ICMbio archaelogical base, Caxiuanã 

The ICMbio (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade) is a government agency responsible for managing 334 protected areas within Brazil. During the students’ visit to the archaeological base, Professora Erêndira Oliveira, an archaeologist from the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, delivered a presentation on how material remains discovered in surrounding areas may reveal the presence and interaction of long-term indigenous communities with the forest.

She discussed how ceramics, settlement structures, and the distinctive “terra preta” (Amazonian dark earth) help archaeologists trace activities of past populations. Patterns in vegetation, enriched soils, and distribution of archaeological materials help indicate sophisticated forms of landscape domestication. Thus, her presentation helped demonstrate to students how the intersection of archaeology and environmental science aid the reconstruction of cultural and botanical histories of the Amazon.

Community Engagement

Students met members of the Pedreira community, who were enthusiastic to share their knowledge of the mandioca (Cassava) production process. Students also attended a lecture by the ethnobotanist Pedro Glécio Costa Lima of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi in Belém, Pará.  Lima shared his research on the use of medicinal plants and agrobiodiversity within Amazonian and riverside communities, highlighting the intersection between the environment and public health.

Additionally, other members of the Caxiuanã community shared their expertise in the extraction of açaí palms. These plants are vital sources of açaí berries, hearts of palm, trunk wood and leaves. These contributions showed students the value forest by-products hold. The Immerse cohort were even challenged with tests of strength and agility, tasked to climb açaí trees without specialised equipment. See how the students got on below.

Global Leaders Dialogue at the British Consulate, São Paulo

The Immerse delegation attended a Global Leaders Dialogue at the British Consulate in São Paulo, where His Majesty's Ambassador to Brazil, Stephanie Al-Qaq, spoke alongside former Brazilian Foreign Minister, Celso Lafer and David Hannah, Director of The Birmingham Institute of Sustainability and Climate Action. Al-Qaq commended the students' commitment to environmental preservation and their advocacy for future generations.

Earlier, the students had met with Al-qaq at the Consulate to share reflections on their immersion experience. This was a unique opportunity to discuss the challenges they witnessed in the Amazon and how these insights can be applied to global environmental issues.

UBBI at COP30

The University of Birmingham students, who participated in the Immerse Amazonia programme, attended the launch of the Birmingham Institute of Sustainability and Climate Action Bridging research and policy for global climate action COP30 report at the House of Commons.

In November 2025, three of the University of Birmingham Immerse students, along with Ângelo Martins Júnior, Co-Director of the UBBI, returned to Belém to take part in several engagements on behalf of The University of Birmingham Brazil Institute at the international United Nations Conference of Parties (COP30) conference. Two of the students shared their expectations in a BBC interview which can be read here.

Please refer to this poster for a summary of The Immerse Amazonia Summer School.

All photo credits on this page are attributed to Dr Gisele Orgado