The Mashco Piro is the world’s largest uncontacted Indigenous group. Today, they find themselves under increasing assault by loggers, drug traffickers and the climate emergency in the international borderlands of Brazil and Peru. This alarming trend has led to loud cries for action to save their homeland from rapid and permanent destruction.
Anthropologist Beatriz Huertas explored the reports of uncontacted Indigenous peoples such as the Mashco Piro in 1999. She discovered that the region is growing more hostile and treacherous for these communities. The Mashco Piro territory is growing more vulnerable by the day. Logging concessions now span 694,584 hectares (roughly the size of the state of Maryland), pushing deep into territories that the Mashco Piro have historically depended on.
Recently the Mashco Piro were observed congregating on the banks of the Las Piedras River near our community of Monte Salvado. Yet today, this pristine frontier is under dire threat from premature outside development activities. Romel Ponciano, a Yine man and consultant to the Mashco Piro. He could really illustrate the intimate relationship these communities have with their landscapes.
“Why do they cut down the big trees?” – Romel Ponciano
These trees are culturally important for the Mashco Piro. Trees are a primary source of cultural identity. Ponciano elaborated on this sentiment by stating,
“For them, the trees are like monuments. They don’t want us to cut them down.”
The increasing violence in the region has had tremendous impacts on the wayward Mashco Piro community. This unrest has led to the escalation of a decade-long confrontation with loggers and drug traffickers in the southern Madre de Dios region. The Peruvian government has faced criticism for its failure to adequately protect Mashco Piro territory despite maintaining 19 control posts nationally for eight Indigenous and territorial reserves, including that of the Mashco Piro.
All signs point to increased population among the Mashco Piro since 2000, a story of resilience in the face of antagonism. Yet, all these figures pale in comparison to the risks they encounter every single day. The Brazilian government has made concrete moves to protect uncontacted groups. They are delimiting the Chandless River Mashco Indigenous territory, which covers an extraordinary 538,338 hectares, or nearly 1.33 million acres.
In addition to helping perpetuate these crimes, illegal encroachment onto native lands has caused widespread alarm among local Indigenous leaders. As Lucas Manchineri underlined, it’s external threats that are bringing the Mashco Piro closer to their communities.
“Wherever land isn’t protected, there are miners, drug traffickers, loggers, illegal fishers and hunters and those people are pushing the Mashco Piro closer to our community,” – Lucas Manchineri
Given these threats, Manchineri called attention to the need for territorial protection.
“We are fighting to protect our uncontacted relatives, but to do that, we need to protect our territory.”
This sense of urgency about this issue is underscored by Huertas, who says that what’s happening right now could create a deadly new precedent.
“This sets a terrible precedent that could justify opening all of the isolated people’s territories for logging,” – Beatriz Huertas
Similarly, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ordered a strengthening of protection measures for isolated peoples, including the Mashco Piro. It shows that there’s a greater understanding of the need to protect at-risk populations.
Carla Cárdenas, political advocacy director for the environmental justice organization Green for All, pointed out that if logging is going to improve the respect of human rights.
“The FSC needs to show that those companies are respecting human rights,” – Carla Cárdenas
With increasing pressure from illegal drug trafficking and logging, the future of the Mashco Piro looks grim. As Carmen Inés Vegas Guerrero explained, without consistent monitoring of logging practices,
“Without the concession, there would be more deaths.”
With the continuous effort on the ground by conservationists and Indigenous leaders united, hope remains that Brazil’s new government will adopt far-reaching protections to defend uncontacted groups. The Mashco Piro continue to defend their territory from outside threats. They want nothing more than to protect their unique culture and way of life from outside control and destruction.