“This is a humanitarian disaster in the making — it’s absolutely vital that the loggers are thrown out.”
Forced Out
Fascinating footage shows members of one of the most isolated Indigenous tribes in the world leaving the rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon, mere miles from where logging companies were recently allowed to cut down trees.
As the Washington Post reports, the Mashco Piro tribe remains one of the largest communities believed to live without any form of contact with the outside world. But now that loggers are encroaching on their home, the tribe has increasingly been making its way to the nearby Las Piedras River, as footage shared by human rights group Survival International shows.
It’s a sad reality, highlighting humanity’s relentless greed and the extent of deforestation affecting one of the largest and most biodiverse tracts of land in the world.
Humanitarian Disaster
Local Indigenous advocates are appalled.
“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,” said the president of local Indigenous organization FENAMAD Alfredo Vargas Pio in a statement.
“The logging workers could bring in new diseases which would 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.
The Mashco Piro inhabit an area nestled between two natural reserves in Madre de Pios, a southeastern region of Peru’s Amazon Basin. Another local community called the Yine, who speak a related language, reported that the Mashco Piro were angered by the presence of loggers, according to Survival International.
Government estimates suggest there are around 750 Mashco Piro living in the area. They’re one of as many as 20 isolated tribes in Peru, according to WaPo.
Meanwhile, a local logging company has built more than 124 miles of road for trucks, operations that were approved by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which argued that its operations were both sustainable and ethical.
Logging, both legal and illegal, remains a massive environmental problem. According to the Amazon Conservation Association, the rainforest is approaching a “tipping point” where it can no longer generate enough rainfall to support its ecosystems due to deforestation.
“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,” Survival International director Caroline Pearce added. “The [Forest Stewardship Council] must cancel its certification of Canales Tahuamanu immediately – failure to do so will make a mockery of the entire certification system.”
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