On November 1st 2024, the Inter American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) launched a case against the Peruvian state for violating the rights of the Mashco Piro indigenous peoples in isolation (PIA). The Mashco Piro are among the most numerous isolated peoples on the planet, with territory spanning the southern Amazon in Peru to parts of the borderland with Brazil. The case charges that the Peruvian State is responsible for violating the rights of this isolated community through granting concessions to extractive activities, particularly logging in the Eastern part of their territory.

On September 4th 2024, two loggers were killed by the Mashco Piro, prompting outrage from a regional Peruvian indigenous organization called the Native Federation of the Madre de Dios River and Affluents (FENAMAD) over the failure of the state to recognize and protect Mashco Piro territory. This recent tragic and avoidable loss of life is a clear reflection of the deeply problematic nature of the overlap between logging concessions and the territory of the Mashco Piro, which has finally prompted legal action on the part of the IACHR.

At the end of the 1990s, FENAMAD proposed the creation of an Indigenous reserve to encompass the Mashco Piro’s geographical range. However, the Peruvian state originally rejected this proposal while extractive activities continued in the territory. After years of calling for action to no avail, in 2011 FENAMAD went to the IACHR to report the Peruvian state’s inaction in preventing violations of Mashco Piro rights.

Due to pressure from indigenous organizations and civil society, the Peruvian state declared the territory an indigenous reserve in 2015. The proposal was approved in 2016, but the official territorial protection was never enacted. Since then, the state has continued to allow logging companies to operate on Mashco Piro territory, despite the ongoing proposal to reclassify areas currently conceded to logging companies as indigenous territory. This has posed a threat to their peaceful existence as peoples in isolation. It is within this context that the IACHR case was officially launched in November of 2024.

The continuation of logging operations clearly infringes on the territorial and cultural rights of the Mashco Piro and is a violation of both Peruvian and international law, according to Survival International’s Director of Research and Advocacy, Fiona Watson. Beyond legality, it is imperative to understand this situation as a threat posing the physical and cultural extermination of an entire people. With no immunity to outside infectious diseases such as COVID, any such outbreak could spell utter disaster.

The degradation of Mashco Piro territory makes contact more likely as territory shrinks and contact with the outside world increases. They also face additional threats from drug traffickers, illegal logging, and mining. The decision for a people to remain in isolation is a human right. This right is under threat because of the failure of the Peruvian state to prevent extractivism. This situation makes clear that the protection of the environment and the cultural rights of indigenous people comprise one interconnected struggle. We must stress this connection and build solidarity wherever we can to protect people and the planet alike.

Sources:

Dan Collyns, “After isolated tribes’ rare appearance in Peruvian Amazon, big questions remain for their future,” Mongabay, 29 July 2024.

“An avoidable tragedy: Loggers killed by uncontacted Mashco Piro in Peru” Survival, September 4th 2024.

“WE REQUEST URGENT INTERVENTION OF THE IACHR IN THE FACE OF THE RISKS TO THE LIFE AND INTEGRITY OF THE PEOPLE IN ISOLATION MASHCO PIRO IN THE PROCESS OF CATEGORIZATION OF THE MADRE DE DIOS INDIGENOUS RESERVE” Earthrights International press release, 6 April 2021.

Earthrights international press release, 6 April 2021.

 Ulrich Brand, Kristina Dietz, and Miriam Lang, “Neo-Extractivism in Latin America – One Side of a New Phase of Global Capitalist Dynamics,” Ciencia Política (Bogotá, Colombia : 2006) 11, no. 21 (2016), 130.

“FSC Response to the Mashco Piro case in Peru” Forest Stewardship Council, 17 July 2024.

“Peru: FSC suspends certification of logging company operating in uncontacted Mashco Piro territory” Survival, August 30th 2024.

Dan Collyns, “After isolated tribes’ rare appearance in Peruvian Amazon, big questions remain for their future,” Mongabay, 29 July 2024.