Two loggers in the Amazon have been killed by arrows in an attack with an indigenous tribe that has left another two missing.
Members of Mashco Piro, an indigenous community that has long isolated itself away from society, attacked the workers who were opening a trail in the Madre de Dios region of the forest.
FENAMAD, an organization that represents more than 30 communities in the region, said the clash occurred in an area near the Pariamanu River.
At least two workers were killed by arrows, another was injured and two are missing, according to the organization’s spokesperson Daniel Pena. FENMAD has also previously lobbied the government to protect the Maschco Piro’s forest.
It comes after members of the tribe injured one person in another attack with bows and arrows in August.
The Mashco Piro were sighted brandishing spears on the banks of a river in remote Peru (pictured in June)
Survival International fears the tribe is moving out of the rainforest due to logging in the area (pictured in June)
Members of the Mashco Piro have been seen outside their territory in recent months, according to images released by the NGO Survival International, which said the community is under massive pressure from the logging industry.
In June, images were released showing the Mashco Piro brandishing spears on the banks of a river in remote Peru.
At least four people, including workers and residents of the area, have died between 2015 and 2022 in clashes with the Mascho Piro, according to the Ministry of Culture.
Incredible footage was also captured showing the tribe, showing them stood around in small clusters, some jogging to pick up large spears resting in the dirt. Others talk and gesture to each other and help carry objects along the river.
‘These incredible images show that a large number of isolated Mashco Piro live alone a few miles from where the loggers are about to start their operations,’ said Survival International director Caroline Pearce at the time.
The Mashco Piro have seldom appeared as a rule and do not communicate much with anyone, according to the NGO.
Tribesmen rest on the banks of the river as others carry spears and stop to interact (pictured in June)
Rare photos show the tribe emerging from the rainforest and interacting on the river banks (pictured in June)
Experts worry the tribe may be pushed out of their homes by logging activity nearby (pictured in June)
The tribe rarely interact even with other tribes, keeping to themselves in a small territory in southeast Peru (pictured in June)
Several logging companies hold timber concessions inside the territory inhabited by the Mashco Piro.
One company, Canales Tahuamanu, has built more than 200 kilometers (120 miles) of roads for its logging trucks to extract timber, according to Survival International.
The company is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, according to which it has 53,000 hectares (130,000 acres) of forests in Madre de Dios to extract cedar and mahogany.
In 2022, members of the Mashco Piro tribe shot two Catahua workers with bows and arrows while fishing on the Tahuamanu River, killing one.
Survival International is now calling on the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to withdraw its certifications of Catahua’s operations – and petitoning for support to help protect uncontacted tribes.
The Mashco Piro have also been sighted across the border in Brazil, said Rosa Padilha, at the Brazilian Catholic bishops’ Indigenous Missionary Council in the state of Acre.
‘They flee from loggers on the Peruvian side,’ she said.
The tribe was seen in rare footage from June walking along the banks of a river in the Madre de Dios region of Peru (pictured June)
‘At this time of the year they appear on the beaches to take (Amazon turtle) eggs. That’s when we find their footprints on the sand. They leave behind a lot of turtle shells.
‘They are a people with no peace, restless, because they are always on the run,’ Padilha said.
There are more than 100 uncontacted tribes around the world, according to Survival, but many today face extinction due to habitat destruction from outsiders.
It warns the Peruvian government still has not signed into law several indigenous territories which these groups rely on for their survival.
There are similar fears for tribes on the other side of the world. In Indonesia, the Hongana Manyawa face expulsion from their home atop the world’s largest nickel deposit on Halmahera Island.
Some came out of isolation for the first time to ask miners for food as they cleared their way through forest to make way for new mines.
Survival International warned they do not know for how long the tribe will be able to survive after the encounter.
Contact with outsiders can be life threatening due to exposure to new diseases isolated people would not have developed resistance to.
