Rare new footage shows ‘uncontacted’ Mashco Piro tribe in Peruvian Amazon, wielding spears on riverbank (video)

Remarkable new footage shows members of one of the world’s most secluded and rarely seen tribes emerging from the rainforest in Peru near several controversial logging sites.

Images released by charity Survival International show more than 50 Mashco Piro people near the Yine village of Monte Salvado, close to Peru’s border with Brazil, in recent days. 

In a separate incident, another group of 17 appeared near the neighbouring village of Puerto Nuevo.

The Yine, who are related but contacted people, speak a language related to Mashco Piro. 

They have previously reported that the Mashco Piro angrily denounced the presence of loggers on their land.

Uncontacted tribes are indigenous peoples who avoid all contact with outsiders.

The Mashco Piro are believed to be the largest uncontacted tribe on Earth, numbering more than 750 people, and living deep in the rainforests of south-east Peru.

Human rights organisations say the new images are a graphic illustration of the urgent need to revoke all the logging licenses in the area and recognise that the territory belongs to the Mashco Piro people.

“These incredible images show that very large numbers of uncontacted Mashco Piro people are living just a few miles from where loggers are poised to start operations,” Survival International director Caroline Pearce said.

“Indeed one logging company, Canales Tahuamanu, is already at work inside Mashco Piro territory, which the Mashco Piro have made clear they oppose.

“This is a humanitarian disaster in the making — it’s absolutely vital that the loggers are thrown out, and the Mashco Piro’s territory is properly protected at last.

“The FSC must cancel its certification of Canales Tahuamanu immediately — failure to do so will make a mockery of the entire certification system.”

Several logging companies hold timber concessions inside the territory and the nearest is just a few miles from where the Mashco Piro were filmed.

One company, Canales Tahuamanu SAC, has built more than 200km of roads for its logging trucks to extract timber.

It is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for its ‘sustainable and ethical operations’ there, despite the Peruvian government acknowledging eight years ago that it is cutting down trees within Mashco Piro territory.

“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,” Alfredo Vargas Pio, president of local Indigenous organisation FENAMAD said.

“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 recognised and protected in law.”

Survival International is calling on the FSC to withdraw its certification of Canales Tahuamanu’s operations.

In the area where Canales Tahuamanu operates, the loss of wide swathes of their land is pushing the Mashco Piro out of their forest, the charity says. 

See the video below.