The Indigenous Mashco Piro tribe has been sighted more often in recent weeks, emerging from the rainforest in search of food, and in response to the growing presence of loggers, Reuters reported citing a local Indigenous rights group.
More than 50 tribes people have been reportedly sighted in recent days. Some have appeared near the southeastern village of Monte Salvado, which belongs to the Yine people. But Survival International explained that this tribe does not communicate with locals in the area.
"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," said Caroline Pearce, the Survival International director.
Logging companies have been granted concession’s by the country’s government to access the area. According to Survival International, the logging company Maderera Canales Tahuamanu SAC has built more than 120 miles of roads to extract timber. The company also has access to a reported 130,000 acres of forest after receiving certification from the non-profit Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
In previous incidents such as this, authorities said that the tribe people were angered by logging in their territory.
“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 Alfredo Vargas Pio, president of local Indigenous rights group FENAMAD in a statement from Survival International.
Vargas Pio added that there is the risk of violence “on either side”, regarding the relationship between the loggers and the tribespeople, and that logging workers could bring diseases to the area that could devastate the tribe.
Somehow, the tribe's people remain the world’s largest uncontacted tribe, with 750 members. They have managed to survive massacres, and enslavement during the rubber boom of the 1800s, NBC reported.
“The FSC must cancel its certification of Canales Tahuamanu immediately — failure to do so will make a mockery of the entire certification system,” said Pearce. “This is a humanitarian disaster in the making — it’s absolutely vital that the loggers are thrown out, and Mashco Piro’s territory is properly protected.”