Images of the world’s remote indigenous tribe, outside its forest, are causing great concern.
In the world, tribes live far away from everything. This is the case of the Mashco Piro people who live in the Amazon rainforest in Peru. Today it brings together 750 individuals who have lived far from modern civilization. In the 1890s, the tribe was attacked and lost many of its members who were either killed or enslaved. The survivors therefore hid deep in the rainforest.
They are considered one of the largest uncontacted tribes in the world. However, according to Survival Internationaldozens of Mashco Piro members were seen venturing kilometers from their homes, on the banks of a river. They would thus flee logging sites which are causing the deforestation of their habitat. Survival International then called for an immediate end to this logging in the area which belongs to the Mashco Piro people.
The Canales Tahuamanu company is certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), an international NGO which aims to promote ecological, social and economic management of forests. This certification is supposed to guarantee the sustainable and ethical nature of the company’s activities. The latter built 200 kilometers of roads so that trucks could extract the wood. This provides access to parts of the previously impenetrable forest, therefore increasing the possibility of encounters with the indigenous people.
The tribe finds itself, according to the organization for the defense of the rights of indigenous peoples, threatened by this presence and could come close to disaster. “The workers can bring new diseases that could decimate the Mashco Piro, and there is a risk of violence on both sides. This is why it is crucial that the territorial rights of the Mashco Piro are recognized and legally protected,” said Alfredo Vargas Pio, president of the local indigenous organization FENAMAD.
Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, supported this observation: “This is a humanitarian catastrophe in the making. It is absolutely vital that the loggers are evicted and that the Mashco Piro territory is finally properly protected.”