26/08/2026
Set deep in Brazil's Southern Pantanal, one of the world's most vital wetlands, Caiman is both a working cattle ranch and a hotel at the heart of one of the greatest concentrations of wildlife in the Americas. Guests wake to hyacinth macaws, track jaguars by open-top vehicle and boat, and return each evening to accommodation featured in the Condé Nast Gold List 2025, with an even higher tier now arriving in the form of a new villa. Flood and drought sculpt this ecosystem, supporting 656 species of birds, 3,500 species of plants, and 159 species of mammals, from anteaters and armadillos to caiman and monkeys.
As founder Roberto Klabin puts it: "Caiman is the result of a long-held dream of mine: to protect a vast native area of the Pantanal and make its conservation economically viable through tourism."
For over 15 years, Caiman has partnered with Onçafari, an organisation dedicated to protecting Brazilian biodiversity through species and habitat conservation. Together, they've pioneered the habituation of jaguars to safari vehicles, a technique drawn from established models in South Africa, allowing these apex predators to move undisturbed while guests watch, often just metres away. The result: jaguar sightings on the property have risen significantly with over 190 individual jaguars identified.
Conservation runs through daily life here too. Caiman manages 100% of its waste, composting around 3 tons monthly and cutting emissions by roughly 28 tCO₂eq. Since 2023, 320 photovoltaic panels have generated over 129,000 kWh of renewable energy, avoiding close to 45 tons of CO₂eq by 2025. Every drop of wastewater is treated and returned to nature or reused to irrigate the land.
Forty-one years later, as Klabin describes it, Caiman has become "a model of regenerative tourism that has transformed Caiman into a true Noah's Ark." A stay here means days spent immersed in that model: jaguar tracking at dawn, boat safaris at dusk, and evenings under Pantanal skies. Every measure taken protects a landscape that ranks among the richest in wildlife on Earth, and every guest becomes part of the story of preserving the world's largest tropical wetland.
Find out more about Caiman here: https://www.scottdunn.com/sg/brazil/hotels/caiman-ecological-refuge