A human rights group has captured astonishing photos of a remote, uncontacted tribe in the Peruvian Amazon who are being threatened by loggers.
Survival International captured images of the Mashco Piro people in the last couple of weeks as they appeared on a beach near a village of Yine people called Monte Salvado.
According to a local Indigenous rights group Fenamad, the reclusive tribe has increasingly been coming out of the rainforest where they live in recent weeks as they run from the presence of loggers.
“These incredible images show that a large number of isolated Mashco Piro live alone a few kilometers from where the loggers are about to start their operations,” says the director of Survival International, Caroline Pearce.
The Mashco Piro live in an area between two natural reserves in southeastern Peru. Survival International’s images are remarkable because the tribe is seldom seen and completely cut off from the outside world.
The people in the Yine village of Monte Salvado speak a language related to Mashco Piro but they barely communicate with the nomadic tribe. However, the Yine has previously reported that the Mashco Piro have “angrily denounced” the presence of loggers in the area, according to Survival International.
A number of logging companies hold timber concessions inside Mascho Piro territory. Canales Tahuamanu, a logging company, has built more than 120 miles (200 kilometers) of roads for its trucks to haul timber.
There have been numerous reported sightings of the Mascho Piro in recent weeks, including across the border in Brazil and just 93 miles (150 kilometers) from the capital of Madre de Dios, Puerto Maldonado.
Contact with the outside world brings the risk of diseases to which the Mascho Piro has little or no immunity. Common illnesses that are easily treatable in modern society can be devastating for isolated groups.
“They flee from loggers on the Peruvian side,” says the Brazilian Catholic bishops’ Indigenous Missionary Council in the state of Acre where the Mashco Piro appears.
“At this time of the year, they appear on the beaches to take tracajá [Amazon turtle] eggs. That’s when we find their footprints on the sand. They leave behind a lot of turtle shells.
“They are a people with no peace, restless, because they are always on the run.”
Image credits: Photographs by Survival International
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