Uncontacted Amazon Tribe Survival International made rare pictures and videos of the Mashco Piro.
Rare images show the Mashco Piro, a once-uncontacted tribe deep in the Peruvian Amazon, coming out of their isolated area. Released on Tuesday by Survival International, the pictures show many tribe members lounging beside a riverbed. This sighting falls among mounting worries regarding the welfare of the Mashco Piro.
Rising logging activity in the area is probably driving the tribe from their ancestral grounds, claims FENAMAD, a local Indigenous rights group. Seeking food and a safer haven, the Mashco Piro might be approaching towns.
Pictures: Mashco Piro – Rare Images of Uncontacted Amazon Tribe
❗️ New & extraordinary footage released today show dozens of uncontacted Mashco Piro Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon, just a few miles from several logging companies.
Read the news: https://t.co/g9GrZlf3XB pic.twitter.com/fZv5rryzVp
— Survival International (@Survival) July 16, 2024
According to Survival International, pictures were taken late June close to a river in Madre de Dios, a southeast Peruvian state bordering Brazil.
“These amazing pictures show that many isolated Mashco Piro live alone a few km from where the loggers are about to start their activities,” Survival International director Caroline Pearce remarked.
More than fifty Mashco Piro members showed recently close to a Yine people community known as Monte Salvado. Said the NGO, another group of 17 showed up in Puerto Nuevo, a nearby town, claiming Indigenous rights.
According to Survival International, the Mashco Piro, who live between two natural reserves in Madre de Dios, hardly show up generally and hardly interact with the Yine or anyone.
Timber concessions inside the Mashco Piro territory are owned by several logging firms.
Survival International claims that one business, Canales Tahuamanu, has constructed more than 200 kilometers (120 miles) of roads for its logging trucks to harvest timber.
A Canales Tahuamanu agent in Lima did not reply to a request for remarks.
The Forest Stewardship Council certifies the enterprise, which has 53,000 hectares (130,000 acres) of Madre de Dios forests to harvest cedar and mahogany.
On June 28, the Peruvian authorities stated that local villagers had seen Mashco Piro on the Las Piedras river, 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the capital of Madre de Dios, Puerto Maldonado.
Said Rosa Padilha, of the Brazilian Catholic bishops’ Indigenous Missionary Council in the state of Acre, the Mashco Piro have also been reported seen across the border in Brazil.