Featured Image Credit: Survival International
Topics: Amazon, News, World News
Niamh Shackleton
An uncontacted tribe in the Peruvian Amazon has launched an attack on loggers encroaching on their territory.
The Mashco Piro tribe live in Peru's Manú National Park.
As of this year, the tribe is said to be made up of more than 750 members.
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The Federación Nativa del Río Madre de Dios y Afluentes (FENAMAD) who represent 39 Indigenous communities in the Cusco and Madre de Dios regions, confirmed that an incident took place on July 27.
The logging that is currently taking place in that area of the Amazon is thought to be illegal, CBS News reports.
"It is presumably illegal because the area where the incident occurred is a forestry concession that belonged to Wood Tropical Forest until November 2022, and we are not aware of a concession that has requested or granted enabling rights in the same area," an anonymous FENAMAD spokesperson told the outlet.
The organization went on to call out the Peruvian government for not doing more to protect the Mashco Piro and their home amid increased activity of illegal logging.
In the incident that occurred at the end of last month the tribe are said to have fired arrows at the loggers, leaving one seriously injured.
A similar ordeal occurred in 2022 when two loggers were shot with arrows while fishing. One was fatally injured.
Survival International, an advocacy group for indigenous peoples, is now calling for the Peru's government to do more.
Teresa Mayo, a researcher at Survival International, said in a phone call to CBS News: "This is a permanent emergency. For the last month we have been seeing the Mascho Piro every two weeks at different points, and in all of them they are surrounded by loggers.
"It's truly a matter of life and death. And only the government can and has the duty to stop it."
Just weeks before the incident, Survival International Director Caroline Pearce expressed concerns that they were on the verge of a 'humanitarian disaster' after images showed members of the tribe just a few miles away from logging concessions.
"This is a humanitarian disaster in the making," she said. "It’s absolutely vital that the loggers are thrown out."
Pearce went on: "The FSC must cancel its certification of Canales Tahuamanu immediately – failure to do so will make a mockery of the entire certification system."
In response to the attack last month, Survival International have doubled down on the importance of protecting Mashco Piro occupied land.
A spokesperson for the organization told UNILAD: "The attack provides further evidence of just how important – and urgent – it is for the whole Mashco Piro territory to be properly protected.
"It reinforces the need for all the logging licenses in the Mashco Piro territory to be revoked, as it is impossible to protect the lives of either the Mashco Piro or the logging workers."