The Immerse Pantanal Summer School Experience

The launch of the 2026 Immerse Pantanal Summer School marked an exciting milestone for the University of Birmingham Brazil Institute, building on the success of the Institute’s award-nominated 2025 Immerse Amazonia Summer Programme.

This year’s programme featured a rigorous two-week schedule set in the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, located in west-central Brazil. Recognised as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site, the Pantanal provided an exceptional setting for interdisciplinary and intercultural learning.

Eight students from the University of Birmingham joined eight students from the Universidade Estadual de Mato Grosso do Sul (UEMS) for a culturally immersive educational experience featuring lectures, symposia and field-activities centred on addressing key United Nations SDGs. Students reflected on their experiences via detailed fieldwork diaries, curated short films and professional blog posts, raising awareness of rural challenges faced by local communities. Read more about the experience below.

Arrival at Campo Grande: The capital of Mato Grosso do Sul 

The programme began with a reception hosted by UEMS, attended by representatives from funding agencies and local government, who welcomed students to the Pantanal region. Initial discussions focused on introducing the region’s key environmental and socio-economic challenges, aligning objectives to support regional priorities, and identifying opportunities for sustained collaboration between academic, governmental, and community stakeholders.

Students also visited the Instituto de Meio Ambiente de Mato Grosso do Sul (IMASUL), the state agency responsible for implementing the state's environmental sustainability policies. The agency remains responsible for managing water resources, preserving state conservation areas, and coordinating integrated fire management. Students were able to observe the use of satellite imagery identifying high-risk wildfire areas used to deploy targeted resources rapidly.

Arrival at Bonito: 

The Immerse Pantanal cohort travelled to Bonito, a southwestern municipality located within the state of Matto Grosso do Sul, approximately 300Km from the capital Campo Grande. Here, students were able to experience the Cerrado Biome sporting a mosaic of ecological landscapes including tropical grasslands and the worlds largest savanna, home to over 160,000 species of fauna and flora. As the Cerrado is vital in its role for water retention, carbon sequestration and biodiversity it proved a reflective environment to nurture student dialogues supporting conservative climate practices. 

In line with SDG 13: Climate action and SDG 15: Life on land, students visited three key sites: Lagoa Misteriosa, Rio da Prata and Estância Mimosa. The former acts as Brazil's largest phreatic deepwater cave, situated within limestone rock and more than 220m deep and Rio da Prata translates to Silver River, an homage to it's extremely clear waters. Each location was an unparallelled opportunity for students to learn about the variation in hydro resources and the importance of to the community and wider fauna of aquatic environments. 

Estância Mimosa refers to the first ever eco-tourist attraction to receive positive climate certification, esteemed for its waterfalls, hiking trails and immersive activities such as horseback riding that students were able to experience first-hand. The cohort was also able to immerse themselves in local conservation and reforestation practices, planting trees alongside members dedicated to environmental sustainability

Transition to Aquidauana–Anastácio

Here the Immerse cohort was able to experience a unique gastronomic experience, where the dean of UEMS,  Dr. Laércio Alves de Carvalho kindly prepared a local meal, macarrão de comitiva (cowboy-style pasta).

Next stop was Pousada São João, a traditional eco-lodge located within the wetlands dedicated to preserving and protecting the Pantanal biome. Home to the São João farm, it covered approximately 2,000 hectares of lakes, ponds, savanna's and dense forests. Through a real-life safari and boat experience students observed the staggering Pantanal fauna and were prompted to consider challenges faced by local communities in the region. This covered the prominence of water-borne diseases like leptospirosis, heavily contagious to cattle, posing a risks to livestock and food production.

The Indigenous Babaçu Village

The state of Mato Grosso do Sul is home to the second-largest Indigenous population in Brazil, including approximately 16,000 Terena people, an Arawak-speaking Indigenous nation. the Terena are now primarily distributed across six municipalities, mainly in Miranda of the southern Pantanal region.

During the student's visit, members of the Centro Comunitário Aldeia Babaçu kindly shared their knowledge of Terena history, cultural traditions, and ways of life through several hands-on workshops. Students learnt about traditional ceramics, basket weaving, culinary practices, medicinal and healing plant seminars, guided village tours, and performances of traditional music and dance. Discussions of the Terena's post-conflict cultural resilience and migration provided valuable insight into the endurance of the community and served as an excellent opportunity for students to work towards achieving SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, see images below.

The UEMS school farm

The summer school continued at the University of Mato Grosso do Sul's agricultural and animal research hub, where activities encouraged students to consider the extent to which sustainable soil management is interconnected with climate change mitigation. Here, students planted new trees as part of a long-term research project evaluating tree growth rates, height, and volume across the local region. The session addressed the importance of generating valuable long-term ecological data, biodiversity and species-selective reforestation.

Visit to UEMS CEMAP

The UEMS Center for Environmental Studies, Protected Areas, and Sustainable Development aims to offset wetland damage caused by wildfires prominent within the Pantanal region. In 2020 alone the phenomenon led to a loss of 3.9 million hectares of wetland, equating to 26% of the landmass of the biome. 

Divided into three groups, students were donned in fireproof protective clothing and participated in extinguishing controlled fires at a local training site. They partook in a series of practical tasks, including using air-blowing tools to redirect flames, operating water hoses, and suppressing fires with rubber fire beaters. The exercise culminated in a realistic simulation of the techniques and coordinated efforts used in the management of wildfires in the Pantanal.

Image credits attributed to Dr Gisele Orgado, Research credits attributed to Luïza Orgado

CONNECT WITH UBBI

Collectively, these experiences offered students with a culturally enriching and educational summer programme, rooted in addressing several key sustainable development goals. Stay connected with further University of Birmingham Brazil Institute initiatives by following our LinkedIn and subscribing to the mailing list.