Amazon rainforest tribe cut off from outside world ‘close to disaster’

One of the world's most remote tribes, cut off from the outside world, is under threat and edging 'close to disaster'.

The startling statement has been made after incredible new images of the tribal people were released by one of the world's leading human rights organisations.

Called the Mascho Piro people, the isolated group live in the Amazon rainforest in Peru.

With more than 750 people living in the community to this day, they've lived almost untouched by modern civilisation since the 1890s when invaders killed many of those who called the area home, and enslaved others.

Survivors retreated deep in to the rainforest, living isolated ever since and becoming what experts believe to be the largest isolated tribe in the world.

But extraordinary new images have left human rights volunteers worried for the tribe's survival.

Showing dozens of people from the Mascho Piro tribe, the images show the tribe venturing just miles away from a number of logging sites cutting down trees in the Amazon.

The Mascho Piro people seen for the first time in a long time (Survival International)

More than 50 Mashco Piro people appeared near the Yine village of Monte Salvado, in south east Peru, this week. In a separate incident, a group of 17 tribespeople appeared near the neighbouring village of Puerto Nuevo.

Another tribe called the Yine speak a language related to Mashco Piro and have previously reported that the Mashco Piro angrily denounced the presence of loggers on their land.

As a result, human rights experts from the Survival International organisation are calling on an immediate halt to logging in the area - especially with, they say, Several logging companies hold timber concessions inside the territory that belongs to the Mashco Piro people.

Alfredo Vargas Pio, President of local Indigenous organisation FENAMAD, said: “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.

They've been seen just miles from logging company sites (Survival International)

"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.”

One logging company has reportedly built 200 kilometres of roads through the rainforest to bring timber out of the area.

It is certified by the FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] 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.

Renewed calls have been issued to protect the tribe (Survival International)

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.

“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.”