New photos and rare video from an uncontacted indigenous tribe in the Peruvian Amazon show a group of people emerging from a rainforest, possibly due to encroaching logging operations.
The Mashco Piro people, who are the world’s largest uncontacted tribe according to human rights group Survival International, were granted a territorial reserve in 2002. But the Peruvian government has also granted concessions to several logging companies on the tribe’s territory.
The nearest logging operation is just a few kilometres from where the Mashco Piro were filmed in south-eastern Peru, says Survival International, which published the photos on Tuesday.
Interactions between loggers and indigenous people carry many risks, Alfredo Vargas Pio, president of the regional indigenous organization FENAMAD, said in a press release.
“This is clear evidence that many Mashco Piro live in this area, which the government has not only failed to protect but has even sold to logging companies,” he said in a statement. “Loggers could bring new diseases that would wipe out the Mashco Piro, and there is also a risk of violence on both sides, so it is very important that the territorial rights of the Mashco Piro are recognized and protected by law.”
Who are the Mashco Piro?
According to Survival International, the Mashco Piro number more than 750 individuals and live in the rainforests of southeastern Peru.
Several dozen members of the indigenous community appeared in late June on the banks of the Las Piedras River in Monte Salvado, in Peru’s Madre de Dios province, on the border with Bolivia and Brazil. Another group of 17 people appeared near the nearby village of Puerto Nuevo, Survival International said.
Another tribe, the Yine, who are not isolated and speak a language related to Mashco Piro, have previously reported that the Mashco Piro “angrily denounce the presence of loggers on their land”, Survival International said.
The Mashco Piro have also been spotted across the border in Brazil, according to Rosa Padilha of the Indigenous Missionary Council of Brazilian Catholic Bishops in the Brazilian state of Acre, Reuters reported.
“On the Peruvian side, they are fleeing from the loggers,” she explains. “At this time of year, they appear on the beaches to steal tracajá (Amazonian turtle) eggs. That’s when we find their footprints in the sand. They leave behind many turtle shells.”
“They are a people who have no peace, who are restless, because they are always on the run,” Padilha said.
Peru: clashes between indigenous people and loggers
“These incredible images,” said Survival International’s director Caroline Pearce, “show that a huge number of uncontacted people living in the Mashco Piro area are living just a few kilometres from where the loggers are about to begin their operations.”
This is not the first time that there have been signs that the Mashco Piro feel encroached by logging on their territory. In two incidents — one in 2011 and the other in 2013, reported by NBC News — the reclusive occupants of the forest appeared in what many saw as an effort to attract the attention of the outside world.
Canales Tahuamanu, or Catahua, one of several logging companies with logging concessions inside Mashco Piro territory, has built more than 120 miles of roads to allow logging trucks to pass through the area, says Survival International.
In August 2022, two Canales Tahuamanu workers were hit by arrows from the Mashco Piro, one fatally, the Washington Post reported.
“The Mashco Piro are desperate. These arrows are proof of that,” Julio Cusurichi, an indigenous leader and activist known for his work on behalf of indigenous peoples and the Amazon rainforest, told The Washington Post in May. “They wouldn’t have done this if they hadn’t been forced to.”
Last year, the United Nations special rapporteur on indigenous rights called on Canales Tahuamanu to stop logging and respond to allegations of “possible forced contact” with the isolated tribe, the Post reported.
The company did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters, The Washington Post or other media outlets.
Survival International is calling on the country’s Forest Stewardship Council to decertify the company’s operations. More than 9,000 people have signed its online petition, according to the organization.
“This is a humanitarian disaster in the making. It is absolutely vital that the loggers are evicted and that the Mashco Piro territory is finally properly protected. The FSC must immediately decertify Canales Tahuamanu. Otherwise, the entire certification system would be violated.”
Contribution: Reuters.
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