See how fire has changed the world's largest wetland, the Pantanal
A marsh deer escaping a forest fire in Poconé, Mato Grosso, in 2020
Lalo de Almeida
Science Museum
How can these four pictures be images of the same region? What force could possibly transform the Pantanal – a tropical wetland straddling Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, full of jaguars, howler monkeys, caiman, marsh deer and a vast number of fish and birds – into a fire-ravaged wasteland?
A dorado in the Olho D’Água river in 2013
Luciano Candisani
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The 200,000-square-kilometre wetland – the world’s largest – is used to alternating dry and wet seasons. But climate change, deforestation and intensive farming have made a grim parody of its natural wet and dry cycles. In 2020, a record-breaking wildfire burned over a quarter of the region’s vegetation cover. The last major fire season was in 2024.
An aerial view showing how life was burgeoning in the main drainage channel of the Baía do Castelo, a floodplain lake, in 2018.
Luciano Candisani
The plight of the fragile ecosystem has captured the attention of two photographers, Lalo de Almeida and Luciano Candisani. Their radically different images are showcased in Water Pantanal Fire, a free exhibition opening on 6 February at London’s Science Museum, and running until the end of May.
Volunteer firefighters gathering at the Jofre Velho ranch during 2020’s catastrophic blaze.
Lalo de Almeida
Candisani’s photographs focus on water and the region’s freshwater life.
De Almeida, a documentary photographer, has focused on the fires that devastated the region and on how it has been affected by climate change.
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