Water Pantanal Fire Exhibition brings the fragility of the Pantanal to London’s Science Museum

A powerful new photography exhibition at the Science Museum is bringing global attention to the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, and to regions where active conservation efforts are urgently underway.

Water Pantanal Fire, on display from February to May 2026, presents a striking visual account of the Pantanal’s beauty, fragility, and accelerating ecological stress. For The A&H Foundation, the exhibition has particular resonance. Many of the landscapes and ecosystems depicted in the photographs are part of the wider Pantanal region where The A&H Foundation, through its partnership with Onçafari, is supporting long-term conservation and habitat protection.

The exhibition features more than 60 photographs by acclaimed Brazilian photographers Lalo de Almeida and Luciano Candisani. Their work captures the Pantanal’s dramatic contrasts: vast floodplains teeming with life, set against scenes of drought, wildfire, and environmental degradation. Together, the images document both the wonder of the biome and the mounting threats it faces from climate change, land-use pressure, and increasingly severe fire seasons.

Spanning approximately 200,000 square kilometres across Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay, the Pantanal plays a critical role in climate regulation, water systems, and biodiversity conservation. It is home to jaguars, giant anteaters, marsh deer, caiman, and hundreds of bird species, including the endangered hyacinth macaw. In recent years, however, prolonged droughts and catastrophic fires have damaged vast areas of the wetland, with devastating consequences for wildlife and local communities.

The regions portrayed in Water Pantanal Fire overlap with conservation corridors and reserves that form the focus of The A&H Foundation’s work in Brazil. Through its partnership with Onçafari, The A&H Foundation is supporting the protection of key landscapes in the Pantanal, and strengthening ecological connectivity across borders. These efforts aim to secure habitat, reduce fire risk, and safeguard flagship species whose survival depends on intact, connected ecosystems.

Curated by Eder Chiodetto and produced by Documenta Pantanal, the exhibition is part of the UK-Brazil Season of Culture and is designed to bring the realities of the Pantanal to an international audience. Almeida’s photographs document the aftermath of wildfires and environmental destruction, while Candisani’s aerial and underwater images reveal the extraordinary abundance sustained by the region’s seasonal flood cycles. The result is a narrative that moves between loss and resilience, underscoring what is at stake if protection efforts fall short.

For The A&H Foundation, the exhibition reinforces the importance of pairing cultural awareness with concrete action. Visual storytelling plays a powerful role in shaping public understanding, but it is most impactful when it connects directly to work on the ground. This includes strengthening fire management, restoring habitat, protecting nesting sites, and supporting local communities whose livelihoods are intertwined with the wetland’s health.

Water Pantanal Fire invites visitors to witness the Pantanal’s extraordinary beauty and its vulnerability at a moment of profound environmental change but, it also serves as a reminder that behind every image lies a living landscape, one that can still be protected through sustained commitment, collaboration, and care.