Two loggers have been shot dead with bows and arrows after allegedly encroaching on the land of the isolated Mashco Piro indigenous tribe in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, a rights group said.
The group, known as FENAMAD, advocates for the rights of Peru’s indigenous people. It says tensions between loggers and indigenous tribes are increasing and increased government protection measures are needed.
Two other loggers involved in the attack are missing and another was injured, FENAMAD said, and rescue efforts are underway.
The human rights group, which represents 39 indigenous communities in the Cusco and Madre de Dios regions of southeastern Peru, said the incident occurred on August 29 in the Pariamanu River basin, as loggers were expanding their passageways through the forest and coming into contact with the reclusive and renowned territorial tribe.
“The Peruvian state has not taken preventive and protective measures to ensure the life and integrity of the workers who have been seriously affected,” the group said in a statement Tuesday, adding that authorities had not yet arrived in the area since the incident.
Survival International/Press release via REUTERS
According to FENAMAD, the attack occurred just 24 kilometres from an incident in July, when Mashco Piro again attacked loggers. The group said in its statement that although it had warned the government of the risk of an increase in violence, nothing had been done.
“It’s a tense and heated situation,” said Cesar Ipenza, an Amazon-based lawyer specializing in environmental law in Peru. “There’s no doubt that tensions between isolated indigenous peoples and the different activities that take place on the territory they have been crossing ancestrally are increasing every day.”
Several other conflicts have already been reported. In one incident in 2022, two loggers were hit by arrows while fishing, one fatally, during an encounter with members of the tribe.
In January, Peru eased restrictions on deforestation, a move critics called an “anti-forestry law.” Researchers have since warned about the increase in deforestation for agriculture and how it facilitates illegal logging and mining.
Ipenaza said some efforts have been made by authorities in the region, such as the mobilization of a helicopter, but overall there has been “little commitment” from Peru’s Ministry of Culture, which is responsible for protecting indigenous peoples.
The Culture Ministry did not immediately respond to a message Wednesday seeking comment on the attack and its protection efforts.
The attack came a day before the Forest Stewardship Council suspended for eight months the sustainability certification of a logging company that human rights groups and activists accuse of encroaching on the indigenous group’s land.
“It is absurd that certification bodies like the FSC continue to certify companies that clearly and openly violate fundamental human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples,” said Julia Urrunaga, director of the Environmental Investigation Agency’s Peru program. “It is terrible that people continue to die and that it has to become an international scandal for action to be taken.”
In July, Photos of uncontacted tribe emerge The man searches for food on a beach in the Peruvian Amazon, which some experts say is evidence that logging concessions are “dangerously close” to his territory. Survival International, an indigenous peoples’ advocacy group, said the photos and videos released showed about 53 Mashco Piro men on the beach. The group estimated that between 100 and 150 members of the tribe were in the area, with women and children nearby.
A 2023 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples says the Peruvian government acknowledged in 2016 that the Mashco Piro and other uncontacted tribes were using territories that had been opened up for logging. The report expresses concern about overlapping territories and that indigenous peoples’ territory has not been demarcated “despite reasonable evidence of their presence since 1999.”
In 2018, footage emerged of an indigenous man believed to be the last remaining member of an uncontacted tribe in the Brazilian Amazon.
