Uncontacted tribes are primary conservationists, they must be protected

In the latest of a series of violent clashes, members of the ‘uncontacted’ Mashco Piro tribe left several loggers dead as they defended their ancestral lands in the Madre de Dios region of southeastern Peru. With logging continuing unabated, these conflicts reveal the growing tensions between Indigenous rights, conservation efforts, and the political and economic drivers of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon.  

The Mashco Piro, likely the largest ‘uncontacted’ Indigenous people, have become the last line of defence against the destruction of their ancestral lands in the Peruvian Amazon’s Madre de Dios region. Despite the influx of millions of dollars into conservation initiatives, deforestation in Peru has surged over the past two decades. The Madre de Dios region alone lost 231,000 hectares of forest between 2001 and 2019. Even within Indigenous reserves like Yavari Tapiche and Sierra del Divisor Occidental Capangua – hailed as successes for their protection of indigenous ancestral lands – deforestation remains rampant. 

Are Indigenous peoples the best conservationists? 

Often considered the ‘best conservationists’, Indigenous populations, including those in voluntary isolation such as the Mashco Piro, are deeply connected to their environments. As a hunter-gatherer tribe, the Mashco Piro move through the remote rainforests of the Madre de Dios region, depending on the land for their survival. The nearly eight million acres of rainforest they inhabit are not only a last refuge for Indigenous tribes in voluntary isolation, they are also habitats for endangered species such as the lowland tapir and giant anteater.

The Mashco Piro’s traditional lifestyles, intimate knowledge of local ecosystems, and close relationships with nature are essential to the protection of these rainforests but their lands and livelihoods have been continually threatened by extractive industries. 

A long history of defence against extractivism

Many of today’s Mashco Piro are descendants from survivors of the brutal ‘rubber boom’ of the 19th century, which saw thousands of Indigenous people enslaved, murdered, and assaulted to fuel the growing demand for car tyres in Europe and the US. For centuries, the tribe have moved peacefully between the edges of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, the Manu National Park, the Los Amigos River Conservation Concession, and the permanently protected forests of the Las Piedras and Tahuamanu river basins. The Mashco Piro also live in the Purús National Park and in the Mashco Piro Indigenous Reserve. Today, their existence is again under threat from the increasing presence of logging companies seeking rare Amazonian hardwoods.

On 29 August 2024, members of the Mashco Piro clashed with illegal loggers in the Madre de Dios region. A federation of local Indigenous organisations FENAMAD (Federación Nativa del Río Madre de Dios y Afluentes), who represent the Mashco Piro, reported at least two loggers killed, one injured, and two more missing. The number of Mashco Piro casualties remains unknown.

FENAMAD are awaiting an official investigation, but early reports suggest the conflict began when loggers encountered a group of Indigenous women while opening roads into the forest near the San Juan ravine, a tributary of the Pariamanu River deep within Mashco Piro territory. 

‘We never know the full extent of Mashco Piro injuries or deaths’, Teresa Mayo, a researcher and campaign lead for Survival International, an NGO that works with Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, tells Latin America Bureau. Mayo explains that lack of direct contact with the Mashco Piro makes it difficult to confirm but points out that ‘it’s firearms against’ arrows, and that they would not risk their lives unless responding to serious threats. Neighbouring Yine communities, who share a linguistic connection with the Mashco Piro also think that it is likely that members of the neighbouring tribe were killed. 

Though the Peruvian government established the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve in 2002, after years of pressure from local Indigenous organisations, large sections of Mashco Piro territory were excluded and immediately allocated as logging concessions, explains Mayo. A 2016 agreement to expand the reserve offered hope, but the government has yet to act on it, leaving these areas exposed to deforestation and violent conflict despite clear evidence of the Mashco Piro’s presence. According to Survival International, both recent clashes between the Mashco Piro and loggers occurred in these unprotected ‘expansion zones’. 

Sustainability without Indigenous rights? 

Indigenous organisations have long pressed the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, who is responsible for protecting Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, about the expansion of the reserve, but the government’s responses have consistently prioritised corporate interests. ‘They [the Ministry of Culture] say they need to find a way of respecting the companies’ rights,’ remarks Mayo from Survival International. ‘But what about the people’s rights?’

FENAMAD and other local organisations have also criticised the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), whose globally heralded ‘sustainability’ certification is supposed to protect forests and their guardians. In a joint statement, they accuse the FSC of ‘endorsing the systematic violation of Indigenous people’s rights’ and say that ‘respect for Indigenous rights – especially those of uncontacted peoples – is clearly not an FSC priority’. 

Maderera Canales Tahuamanu (MCT) is a company notorious for holding controversial logging concessions. Indigenous movements point out that the FSC has been aware of the serious consequences of MCT’s logging activities in the Mashco Piro territory since at least 2020, and that several communications have been made warning of the potential dangers if operations continue. In 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples also raised similar concerns about logging concessions on undemarcated Indigenous land in the Madre de Dios, highlighting that there has been reasonable evidence of Indigenous presence from as early as 1999. 

Although the FSC recently suspended MCT’s certification – following media pressure and public outcry – Indigenous organisations assert that this action is insufficient given the overwhelming evidence. ‘We want actions, not words!’, they say. Regardless of its legal status, the certification of MCT on Mashco Piro ancestral territory represents a failure that has already cost lives. ‘People are being killed,’ Mayo from Survival International adds. ‘If you care about Indigenous rights, how can you keep that certification? It’s insane.’

These events cast significant doubt on the FSC’s ability to protect Indigenous rights, especially when ancestral and state-certified land claims conflict. This is not the first time the FSC has faced accusations of neglecting local communities’ rights, raising serious concerns about its ability to ensure so-called sustainable and ethical extraction — navigating the contradictions between the interests of logging companies, and Indigenous peoples’ rights and environmental protections.

Despite the FSC’s efforts to address these tensions through policies like free, prior and informed consent, advocates argue the Mashco Piro have already made it clear that they reject the presence of loggers. FENAMAD now refuses further dialogue with the FSC, accusing the organisation of using investigations to justify continued logging ‘under the guise of social and environmental sustainability’. This conflict reflects a broader problem with conservation models that claim to balance economic and environmental goals but often undermine Indigenous rights.

What about alternative conservation strategies?

Modern conservation efforts in Peru include protection measures such as establishing, expanding and modifying restrictions in protected areas, and incentive mechanisms like REDD+ programs – projects using carbon finance to fund community activities that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and promote ‘sustainable’ forest management. However, a 2023 report by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) underscores the failures of these mechanisms and concludes that they have largely failed not only to protect forests but also Indigenous peoples’ rights. 

According to the CIFOR report, REDD+ has been one of the least effective conservation strategies for forest protection and Indigenous rights. In particular, it has come under widespread criticism for its failure to support Indigenous peoples’ self-determination and territorial defence, including high-profile cases of projects not respecting Indigenous rights in Peru. 

Kichwa activist and leader Marisol García Apagueño calls this ‘conservación excluyente’ – exclusionary conservation. She says that NGOs, environmentalists, and institutions are heralded for their conservation work when in fact their initiatives threaten the lives of Indigenous peoples who have protected the forests for centuries. She told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that due to the creation of protected areas on her ancestral territory and the sale of carbon credits, her community suffers infringements on their rights and restrictions on their way of life that affect their health, their culture and their economic situation. This includes restrictions on ancestral practices like hunting, gathering, fishing, and raising animals.

Despite a growing body of evidence which shows that formally securing indigenous land rights and territorial self-determination is critical for forest conservation, international climate finance mainly flows into REDD+. In 2023 alone, Peru received $10 million to implement a joint climate and forest agreement with Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom, alongside a slew of high-profile private deals on the voluntary carbon markets. 

Dr Will Lock, a lecturer at the University of Sussex who researches carbon offsetting in Peru notes that these projects are expanding even as criticism grows. ‘The Peruvian Government has aggressively pursued REDD+ deals, including through bilateral funding, voluntary markets, and public-private initiatives. But these projects are often designed around market goals, rather than those of local actors. In terms of conservation, they are often far less successful than simply recognising Indigenous peoples’ land rights. The continued flow of international funds to these flawed projects underscores how economic incentives can contradict both Indigenous rights and environmental goals.

Protection for ‘environmental defenders’, the Mashco Piro

The failure of REDD+ and other initiatives highlights an urgent need to place the rights of  Indigenous peoples, who are already responsible for protecting much of* the world’s biodiversity, at the centre of conservation strategies, rather than the potential financial windfall of carbon credits. The Peruvian state receives a lot of international money for forest conservation,’ Mayo of Survival International explains. ‘Indigenous organisations don’t want their land to be used to “greenwash” the government’s actions’.

The failure to protect Indigenous and environmental rights, even within established protected areas, has shaped FENAMAD’s stance on the Madre de Dios reserve expansion. At present they are refusing to accept any expansion unless the government first revokes all logging concessions. 

‘It’s heartbreaking because [the Mashco Piro] cannot defend themselves in our system,’ Mayo says. ‘They are the most self-sufficient people when their land is protected, and they suffer the most when it’s not.’

However, despite the failures of the FSC, the main target for FENAMAD and Survival remains the Ministry of Culture, without whom logging activities will not be permanently stopped. 

‘The suspension is a step,’ Mayo concludes, ‘but the fight isn’t over until Mashco Piro territory is completely free from logging.’

* It is widely cited that 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity is protected by Indigenous peoples. This may be true, although it is hard to quantify (see Nature and Mongabay for more)

‘This article was originally published by Latin America Bureau here. Sign up to Latin America Bureau’s newsletter for similar stories.’

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