IPBio - Biodiversity Research Institute

My time at the Betary Reserve of IPBio was an unforgettable experience. I came here as a student to complete my bachelor's degree thesis and internship. Alongside helping with the eco-volunteering activities, I also worked on my own research project. The staff gave me great guidance for my project! As most of the staff have lived in Iporanga all their lives, they know so much about the Atlantic Rainforest. I learnt a lot from them! The reserve is located in a beautiful area with lots of amazing wildlife. It was such an amazing opportunity to help with research activities over here! I stayed in the volunteer house with the other volunteers and made friends for life. In our free time, we enjoyed lots of fun activities, such as visiting caves and waterfalls, swimming in the river or barbecuing with all the volunteers and staff. Iporanga, the closest town to the reserve, is a very safe and lovely place. The locals are really kind and very welcoming. I would definitely like to come back here in the future!

8 weeks in the moist, pungent bowls of the Amazon...

Overall my experience was positive and enjoyable. This program is a potent catalyst for learning. I type this reclined in a hammock on a lethargic Sunday morning two days before departure.

We see the Jungle on TV. But the documentaries do not convey the senses of diurnal and nocturnal Jungle, the quiet chuckle of beetles, the carcofiny of frogs, the warmth of decomposition in the soil, the burn of that insidious caterpillar, the smells born upon the humidity... Volunteering at IPBio immerses you in it all.

I felt our work was beneficial and useful to IPBio, local communities and the environment. Given a comprehensive introduction upon arrival and all this information I asked for I quickly came to know my way around and how to do the work.
Many x-volunteers stay in contact and even use IPBios data in scientific studies of their own.

As a team, we discovered and photographed two new fungal species to science. Don't let this inflate your ego, though, seemingly mundane creatures are just as important as the flamboyant, both are to be measured.

My favorite leisure activity was to swim in the Tapajos river at sun set (and what opulant sun sets they are) and, in the heat of the day, read in the hammoks. We do have a lot of free time (working in the mornings) but often up load and ID photos and audios in the afternoon at lesure.

Carimbo is the local Amazonian dance in Alter do Chao one a week. Volunteers go there to party, I found it a fasinaitng cultural experiance. We were blessed by the Kiss-eek (the cheif) of the local tribe! with water, herbs and smoke!!

I had a few unenjoyable hiccups with other volunteers. Sharing a room with three others and eight of us in the tiny kitchen. Personally, I do not enjoy parties, and prefure to be clean and tidy. Many volunteers didn't wash their dishes or mop up their muddy shoe prints in the bedrooms. My least enjoyable experience here, was repeatably being kept awake by their loud music and partying. Then working next day with them hung-over and not contributing their fair share. (I've never seen the staff like this).

Don't be a person who treats the washing line as a wardrobe and complains about the rain! (this is a 'rainforest').

Yes, there are plenty of snakes, spiders, scorpions, centipedes and caterpillars. With potentially dangerous creatures in the river. I myself was stung by a wasp while buying bananas, burned by a caterpillar in the field and walked into a pit-viper along the road.

However, the Jungle is not 'out to get you'. IPBio gives you all the information you need to mitigate risks. Truly and sincirely, it is not as dangerous as media portrays.

Having the privilege of assisting at both the Atlantic and Amazon forests, getting to see the differences in biomes and wildlife, and directly contributing to science has been a dream come true. Despite growing up as a city kid with a fear of spiders, I learned to enjoy collecting them and other insects to help identify and add to the database. It also wasn’t easy removing invasive Napoleon plants, hundreds of them, yet even still watching the endangered juçara palm saplings fill the new spaces we cleared is a satisfaction that makes me ready to do it all again. Working with people all over the world, practicing portuguese to speak with locals, getting to see wildlife I’d only ever saw on nat geo tv, from dancing manakin birds, to various monkey species, to fishing up piranhas, having a tree frog try to kiss me (still scarred), waking up to tarantulas or wandering spiders in the house, and barbecues with staff, so many memories were made. Would love to come back again, especially to visit the future bases across the other important biomes in Brazil. Even if you don’t directly see the impact you make here, there is proof in the data that every volunteer counts, and this is one you don't want to miss!

I really enjoyed my time in the Amazon with IPBio. The work was varied, interesting and gave me the chance to learn a lot about biodiversity research in a real tropical fieldwork setting. I especially enjoyed the bird inventories, fish inventories, mushroom searches, night surveys and the chance to contribute to species records and data processing. The Amazon location is still developing, so sometimes the structure and working hours were more flexible than I expected, but the staff were supportive and the research itself was taken seriously. Overall, it was a unique and valuable experience where I learned a lot about fieldwork, Brazilian nature, teamwork and working in an international environment.

I had the best three months during my time with IPbio. It is the best introduction to the Amazon. You get to be immersed in the rainforest and surrounded by wildlife while having the comforts most people are used to. The staff is amazing and super supportive. You really feel like you are a part of the team and valued. The free time you have can be filled with a variety of tours, hanging out with the other volunteers, or chilling at the amazing volunteer house. The only bad thing about this programme is having to leave!