Why recent sighting of Peru’s uncontacted Mashko Piro people is concerning

Why recent sighting of Peru’s uncontacted Mashko Piro people is concerning

Sub: IR

Sec:  Places in news

Context:

• Survival International released rare photos of the Mashco Piro, one of the world’s uncontacted tribes.
• Over 50 tribespeople were seen near a river close to logging concessions, highlighting a potential humanitarian crisis.

Mashco Piro- Uncontacted Tribe:

• The Mashco Piro, numbering over 750, are nomadic hunter-gatherers living in the Amazon jungles near Peru’s borders with Brazil and Bolivia.
• Peru’s government forbids contact with them to prevent disease spread, and most information about them comes from the Yine people.

Logging Threats:

• In 2002, Peru created the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve to protect the Mashco Piro, but much of their land remains outside the reserve.
• Logging companies, especially Canales Tahuamanu, have been granted large concessions and have aggressively defended their rights.
• The Mashco Piro have expressed their distress to the Yine about the logging activities.

Displacement and Survival:

• The Mashco Piro were previously displaced during Peru’s rubber boom in the 1880s, and moved further upstream on the Manu river, leading to their current isolation.
• Recent logging incursions have left them with nowhere to go, increasing sightings as they seek food and flee encroachers.
• Some have even been spotted in Brazil, fleeing the logging activities in Peru.