Wednesday 17 July, UK
Rare footage shows the Mashco Piro tribe emerging from the Peruvian Amazon. They face a “humanitarian disaster” as loggers move into their territory.
The Mashco Piro have been seen leaving their remote rainforest home in search of food. Survival International warns that loggers must be stopped to protect the tribe.
Logging companies have timber concessions in the tribe’s territory. Over 50 Mashco Piro people appeared recently near the Yine village of Monte Salvado.
The Mashco Piro, living between two natural reserves in Madre de Dios, rarely communicate with outsiders. Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, calls the situation a disaster and demands loggers be removed.
Canales Tahuamanu, a logging company, built over 200 kilometers of roads to extract timber. The company, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, has 53,000 hectares of forest in Madre de Dios.
On 28 June, locals reported seeing the Mashco Piro on the Las Piedras river, 150 kilometers from Puerto Maldonado. The tribe has also been seen in Brazil.
Rosa Padilha from the Indigenous Missionary Council in Acre, Brazil, says they flee from Peruvian loggers and are constantly on the run.