PREVIEW

Extraordinary new images and video footage shows dozens of individuals from an uncontacted Amazonian tribe frighteningly near areas earmarked for logging.
More than 50 Mashco Piro people have appeared near the Yine village of Monte Salvado, in South East Peru.
Campaigners say the astonishing footage graphically illustrates the urgent need to revoke all the logging licenses in the area, and recognise that the territory belongs to the Mashco Piro people.
Experts at campaigning group Survival International believe the tribe is the largest still left without outside contact - beyond other similar tribes - in the world.
The Yine, who are not uncontacted, speak a language related to Mashco Piro, and have previously reported that the tribe angrily denounced the presence of loggers on their land.
Survival International Director Caroline Pearce said: “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. Indeed one logging company, Canales Tahuamanu, is already at work inside Mashco Piro territory, which the Mashco Piro have made clear they oppose.”
Describing the issue as a, “humanitarian disaster in the making,” she added: “It’s absolutely vital that the loggers are thrown out, and the Mashco Piro’s territory is properly protected at last.”
She called on Peru’s Forest Stewardship Council to “cancel” the loggers’ certification immediately. More than 8,000 people have already lobbied the FSC.
Alfredo Vargas Pio, President of local Indigenous organization FENAMAD added: “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. 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.”
Several logging companies hold timber concessions inside the territory that belongs to the Mashco Piro people. The nearest is just a few miles from where the Mashco Piro were filmed.
One company, Canales Tahuamanu, that operates inside the Mashco Piro territory has allegedly built more than 200km of roads for its logging trucks to extract timber. It is certified by the FSC for its supposedly sustainable and ethical operations there, despite the Peruvian government acknowledging eight years ago that it is cutting down trees within Mashco Piro territory.