SEATTLE - Near the Madre de Dios region in the southeast of Peru, dozens of people from the Mashco Piro tribe were spotted on the banks of a river, close to where logging companies have concessions. Although it is a rare sight, the uncontacted tribe has been coming out of the Amazonian rainforest more frequently in recent weeks in search of food, and according to local indigenous rights group FENAMAD, they are trying to move away from the growing presence of loggers.
The Mashco Piro people are considered to be the largest uncontacted tribe in the world with more than 750 people, according to human rights group Survival International. They were given a territorial reserve in 2002. The Peruvian government has also given concessions to several logging companies within Mashco Piro territory.
Alfredo Vargas Pio, president of FENAMAD, said that many risks exist from loggers and the Indigenous people interacting. "This is irrefutable evidence that many Mashco Piro live in this area, which the government has not only failed to protect, but actually sold off to logging companies," he said in a statement.
Vargas Pio mentioned that logging workers could bring in new diseases to the area, which could potentially wipe out the Mashco Piro. "And there's also a risk of violence on either side, so it's very important that the territorial rights of the Mashco Piro are recognized and protected in law," he added.
There have already been prior tragic encounters between the Indigenous group and loggers. In August 2022, the Washington Post reported that two workers from the Canales Tahuamanu logging company were struck by arrows from the Mashco Piro tribe. One of them died.
Survival says that several logging companies hold timber concessions inside the territory that belongs to the Mashco Piro tribe, with the nearest concession being just a few miles from where they were spotted.
Canales Tahuamanu, has built more than 120 miles of new roads since 2016 to facilitate the extraction of timber. Survival International notes that the company has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council for its supposedly sustainable and ethical operations, despite the Peruvian government's knowledge that it is cutting down trees within Mashco Piro territory.
Julio Cusurichi, an Indigenous leader and activist, said that the Mashco Piro are desperate and that "they would not have acted that way unless they were forced to," while Survival International Director Caroline Pearce said that the situation is a "humanitarian disaster in the making." Pearce also added that its vital that loggers are thrown out and that the FSC "must cancel its certification of Canales Tahuamanu immediately – failure to do so will make a mockery of the entire certification system."
In 2023, the United Nation's special rapporteur on Indigenous rights asked Canales Tahuamanu to stop logging and respond to allegations of "possible forced contact" with the isolated tribe while Survival International is calling on the country's FSC to withdraw its certification of the company's operations. So far, more than 12,000 people have signed the online petition.
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