New photographs have surfaced showing the elusive Mashco Piro, an uncontacted Indigenous tribe in the remote Peruvian Amazon, raising alarm over the increasing encroachment of logging activities on their territory. The images, released by the nonprofit Survival International, depict tribe members along a riverbank near active logging concessions.
Forced out by logging
Survival International, which advocates for Indigenous rights, shared these rare images to underscore the pressing issue. According to Fenamad, another Indigenous rights group, the Mashco Piro have been driven to venture out in search of food due to the expanding logging activities.
The photos, taken in late June, show the tribe in the Madre de Dios region, close to the Brazilian border. “These incredible images show that a large number of isolated Mashco Piro live alone a few kilometres from where the loggers are about to start their operations,” said Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International. “Indeed, one logging company, Canales Tahuamanu, is already at work inside Mashco Piro territory, which the Mashco Piro have made clear they oppose.”
“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,” stated Alfredo Vargas Pio, head of Fenamad. “The logging workers could bring in new diseases that would wipe out the Mashco Piro, and there’s also a risk of violence on either side. The territorial rights of the Mashco Piro must be recognized and protected in law.”
Increasing sightings near villages
Survival International reported sightings of over 50 Mashco Piro near a Yine village in Monte Salvado and another group of 17 near Puerto Nuevo. The Mashco Piro, who lives between two natural reserves in Madre de Dios, rarely venture out and have limited interaction with the Yine or other tribes. The Yine, who are not uncontacted, speak a related language and have previously reported the Mashco Piro’s vehement opposition to the loggers’ presence.
Several logging companies hold timber concessions on Mashco Piro territory. “Loggers working for Canales Tahuamanu are not only penetrating deep into the forest, they have also constructed around 200 kilometres of logging roads,” stated Survival International. “Such roads are historically disastrous in the Amazon, providing an easy way into the previously inaccessible rainforest for colonization and settlement.”
The nonprofit added that “loggers do not report sightings of the Mashco Piro, for fear of having their operations shut down. A Mashco Piro man told one Yine villager, ‘The men wearing orange are bad people.’ The loggers wear orange jumpsuits.”
Call for immediate action
Canales Tahuamanu is reportedly licensed to manage nearly 53,000 hectares of forest in Madre de Dios for extracting cedar and mahogany. “This is a humanitarian disaster in the making. It’s absolutely vital that the loggers are thrown out and the Mashco Piro’s territory is properly protected at last,” Ms Pearce demanded, calling on Peruvian authorities to immediately revoke the company’s license. “Failure to do so will make a mockery of the entire certification system.” According to Survival International, Canales Tahuamanu “has aggressively used the courts to defend its logging activities.” In a particularly contentious move, the company even sued to prevent the Yine from entering the rainforest they share with the Mashco Piro, claiming the Yine were trespassing.
Government response and broader implications
The Peruvian government announced on June 28 that local villagers had spotted Mashco Piro near the Las Piedras river, 150 kilometres from Puerto Maldonado, the capital of Madre de Dios. Sightings of the tribe have also been reported in Brazil, according to Rosa Padilha of the Brazilian Catholic Bishops’ Indigenous Missionary Council in Acre. “They flee from loggers on the Peruvian side. At this time of the year they appear on beaches to take tracajá eggs,” she said, using the local term for Amazon turtles. “That’s when we find their footprints on the sand. They leave behind a lot of turtle shells.” Ms. Padilha described the Mashco Piro as “a people with no peace, restless, because they are always on the run.”
The urgent need for protection
The emergence of these new images highlights the critical need for immediate action to protect the Mashco Piro from the devastating impacts of logging. The survival of this uncontacted tribe hinges on the recognition and enforcement of their territorial rights, as well as the cessation of invasive logging activities in their habitat.
