Immerse Pantanal brings together students from across the UK to explore the challenges facing a Brazilian region under threat.
From left: Immerse Pantanal participants Maya Kotey-Wright, Ava Prescott, Willow Baker, Oliver Ashton, and Milla Spyczak-Grove.
Eight University of Birmingham students are travelling to one of the most ecologically rich regions on the planet, the Pantanal wetlands in Brazil. Joining their Brazilian counterparts they will explore ways of tackling climate change and sustainability challenges.
The Immerse Pantanal initiative brings together students from the UK and Brazil for a two-week interdisciplinary summer school hosted in the wetlands, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site.
Students will ‘immerse’ themselves in the life of the wetlands, which are facing an existential crisis due to climate-driven drought, massive, often man-made wildfires, and intensive agricultural expansion.
We’re committed to giving University of Birmingham students the best opportunities for growth and personal development, whilst using our expertise and partnerships to help tackle some of the biggest climate change and sustainability challenges.
Working with experts from the University of Birmingham and the Universidade Estadual de Mato Grosso do Sul (UEMS), the students will join local community organisations to develop adaptive solutions for one of the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems.
Organised by the University of Birmingham Brazil Institute (UBBI), the two-week initiative is part of the University’s work promoting the ‘voice of youth’. Students travelling to Brazil were selected in a University-wide competition and come from across the UK:
Maya Kotey-Wright - Salford
Lucy Shepherd - Brackley
Willow Baker- Harrogate
Jake Windsor - Walthamstow
Ava Prescott - Bolton
Oliver Ashton - Dorchester
Kimberly Gichuki - Liverpool
Milla Spyczak-Grove - Coventry
Liberal Arts & Sciences student Milla Spyczak-Grove said: “I’m really looking forward to travelling to Pantanal. This is an exciting opportunity for us to deliver research and create experiences that will have a meaningful impact on people’s lives.”
Delivered through a combination of immersion, experiential field teaching, and intercultural collaboration, the programme brings together undergraduate students from the University of Birmingham and its Brazilian partner institutions, including students from Indigenous and traditional communities.
Like last year’s Immerse Amazonia programme, the Pantanal initiative draws on scientific, local, and ancestral knowledge to explore global environmental challenges. Participants will gain hands-on experience in the region’s complex socio-ecological systems and work in mixed UK–Brazil teams.
Dr Angelo Martins Junior, UBBI Co-Director said: “We’re committed to giving University of Birmingham students the best opportunities for growth and personal development, whilst using our expertise and partnerships to help tackle some of the biggest climate change and sustainability challenges.
“By bringing together students from Britain and Brazil, we hope both groups of undergraduates will change their perspective of world around them. We want to inspire the next generation of future makers as they engage with the challenges associated with climate change.”
The Immerse Pantanal Programme marks a new phase in UBBI’s commitment to creating equitable, interdisciplinary, and high-impact learning opportunities across Brazil.
Building on the success of Immerse Amazonia, the Pantanal programme uses a challenge-based collaborative approach. Students will 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.
The Pantanal is the world's largest tropical wetland, located primarily in southwest Brazil and stretching into Bolivia and Paraguay. Covering over 70,000 square miles, the area is a premier wildlife destination known for high-density jaguar populations, caimans, capybaras, and over 650 bird species.
For more information, please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, or +44 (0)7827 832312.
The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 40,000 students from over 150 countries.
As a strategic region of importance, the University of Birmingham is investing in Brazil to develop purposeful partnerships and relationships that lead to enhanced collaborative research with leading universities, institutions and private organisations.
The University of Birmingham Brazil Institute (UBBI) acts as the central hub of our engagement with Brazil, promoting academic cooperation, partnership and funding opportunities, and cultural initiatives.
Associate Professor in Sociology & Criminology
Angelo Martins Jr is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at the University of Birmingham
