Seen in his new photo are members of the Mashco Piro, an Indigenous tribe in the Peruvian Amazon. These people have had almost no contact with the outside world and we should leave them alone. Unfortunately, logging companies are now operating just a few miles from where this image was captured by Survival International.
According to local Indigenous rights group FENAMAD, the Mashco Piro have been frequently emerging from the rainforest in recent weeks as the loggers increase in numbers and proximity.
"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 organization FENAMAD. "The logging workers could bring in new diseases which would wipe out the Mashco Piro, and there's also a risk of violence on either side, so it's very important that the territorial rights of the Mashco Piro are recognized and protected in law."
CNN reports that one logging company, Canales Tahuamanu, has built over 200 km of roads to cut and remove trees in Mashco Piro territory. Despite Forest Stewardship Council certification for sustainable practices, the Peruvian government confirming eight years ago that the company is cutting down trees in the Mashco Piro's territory.
Survival International believes the Mascho Piro to be "the largest uncontacted tribe in the world." They deserve our respect and, if they choose, to be left alone.
As anthropologist Wade Davis has said, the many other cultures of the world "are not failed attempts to be us, failed attempts to be modern. They are unique expressions of the human imagination and heart, unique answers to a fundamental question. What does it mean to be human and alive? When asked that question they respond in 7000 different languages, and these collectively comprise our human repertoire for dealing with all the challenges that will confront us as a species even as we continue this never ending journey."
(Thanks, Chanté McCormick!)
Previously:
• Remote 'uncontacted' island tribe killed an interloping missionary with arrows
• Rare footage of the 'uncontacted' tribe that killed the missionary who illegally went to their island to preach
