New photos and a rare video of an uncontacted indigenous tribe in the Peruvian Amazon show a group of people emerging from the rainforest, likely due to encroaching logging activities.
The Mashco-Piro people, the world’s largest uncontacted tribe, were granted a territorial reserve in 2002, according to human rights group Survival International, but the Peruvian government has granted concessions to logging companies within the tribe’s territory.
According to Survival International, the nearest logging site is just a few miles from where Mashco Piro was photographed, in southeastern Peru. The photo was published on Tuesday.
Any interaction between loggers and indigenous people carries many risks, says Alfredo Vargas Pio, president of a local indigenous organization. Fenamadteeth, news release.
“This is irrefutable evidence that many Mashko Piro live in an area that the government has not only failed to protect, but has actually sold to logging companies,” he said in a statement. “With the risk of loggers introducing new diseases and eradicating the Mashko Piro, as well as the risk of violence on both sides, it is crucial that the Mashko Piro’s territorial rights are legally recognized and protected.”
Who is Mashko Pirro?
Mashko Piro There are more than 750 of them, according to Survival International, and they live in the rainforests of southeastern Peru.
Dozens of indigenous people showed up in late June on the banks of the Las Piedras River in Monte Salvado, Peru’s Madre de Dios region, which borders Bolivia and Brazil, and another group of 17 people showed up near the neighboring village of Puerto Nuevo, according to Survival International.
Another tribe, the Ine, which is not isolated and speaks a language related to the Mashko Piro, had previously reported that the Mashko Piro had “strongly condemned 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 Brazilian Catholic Bishops’ Indigenous Missionary Council in the Brazilian state of Acre, Reuters reported.
“They’re fleeing from loggers in Peru,” she says. “This is the time of year when they come to the coast to collect Amazon turtle eggs. We see their footprints in the sand. They leave lots of turtle shells behind.”
“They are people who are constantly on the run, who have no peace and are restless,” Padilha said.
Peru: Indigenous peoples clash with loggers
“These startling images show that huge numbers of uncontacted Mashko Piro people live just miles from where loggers are about to begin their work,” Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, said.
This is not the first time there have been indications that the Mashko-Piro people feel their territory is being infringed by logging. Two incidents, in 2011 and 2013, NBC News Many people thought the reclusive forest dwellers’ emergence was a ploy to attract attention from the outside world.
According to Survival International, Canales Tawamanu (commonly known as Katawa), one of several logging companies with logging concessions in Mashko Piro territory, has built more than 120 miles of roads to allow logging trucks to cross the area.
In August 2022, two workers from Canales Tawamanu Shot by Mashko Piro’s arrowOne of them died, according to The Washington Post.
“The Mashco-Piro people are desperate, and the arrows are proof of that,” Julio Cusurici, an indigenous leader and activist known for his work protecting indigenous peoples and the Amazon rainforest, told The Post in May. “They wouldn’t have acted like that if they hadn’t been forced to.”
Last year, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples called on Canales Tawamanu to halt logging and address allegations of “possible forced contact” with isolated tribes, the Post reported.
The company did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters, The Washington Post and other news organizations.
Survival International has called on the country’s Forest Stewardship Council to revoke its certification for the company’s operations. More than 9,000 people have signed a petition. Online Petitionsays the group.
“This is the beginning of a humanitarian disaster. It is imperative that the loggers are removed and the Mashko-Piro territory is finally properly protected. The FSC must immediately revoke Canales Tawamanu’s certification, or else it will make a mockery of the entire certification system.”
Contributed by Reuters.
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