Peru's Mashco Piro tribe recently used bows and arrows to attack loggers suspected of encroaching on their territory in the Amazon. According to CBS News, the regional Indigenous organisation FENAMAD said on Monday that it believes illegal logging was taking place on Mashco Piro territory and that one logger was injured in the July 27 attack.
This comes weeks after photos emerged of the uncontacted tribe searching for food on a beach in the Peruvian Amazon. Experts say the pictures were evidence that logging concessions are "dangerously close" to its territory. Survival International, an advocacy group for Indigenous peoples which closely follows the Mashco Piro's issues, said that photos and videos showed about 53 male Mashco Piro on the beach. The group estimated as many as 100 to 150 tribal members would have been in the area with women and children nearby.
"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," said a FENAMAD representative, speaking anonymously out of personal security concerns, per CBS News.
The organisation further stated that a lack of protection measures by the Peruvian government and the increased activity of companies and illegal operators on the Mascho Piro territory could produce "devastating consequences", such as the transmission of diseases and increased violence.
Notably, in 2022, two loggers were shot with arrows while fishing in the area. There have also been several other previous reports of conflicts, the outlet reported.
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According to FENAMAD, increased logging activity in the area is likely pushing the tribe out of their traditional lands. They believe that the Mashco Piro may be venturing closer to settlements in search of food and a safer refuge.
Separately, Survival International said it is pressuring the Peruvian government to move deeper into these areas of the Amazon to help control the situation. "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," Teresa Mayo, a researcher at Survival International, told CBS News.
"It's truly a matter of life and death. And only the government can and has the duty to stop it," Ms Mayo said.
