Loggers encroach on an uncontacted tribe, and the government shrugs

NUEVA OCEANIA, Peru — Sometimes, they imitate the low rumble of the howler monkey or the shrill squawk of the curassow. Often, they block a jungle path with two branches in the shape of an X.

The Mashco Piro, believed to be the planet’s largest Indigenous group still living in voluntary isolation from the outside world, have ways of registering their displeasure at — and fear of — intruders. When they’ve felt threatened in their remote Amazonian territory, the hunter-gatherers, whose number is estimated at 750, have launched six-foot arrows from the bush. They have, on occasion, killed strangers.

Now a logging company is encroaching on their solitude. Canales Tahuamanu, or Catahua, has a timber concession spanning some 50,000 hectares here — and a record of clashing with Indigenous groups.

Since 2010, its workers have been penetrating deeper into this dense wilderness, methodically felling the biggest trees. Indigenous people and their advocates say this violates national and international law aimed at protecting the unique rights of highly vulnerable peoples who have chosen to live in isolation. But authorities here, who have often been hostile to Indigenous territorial claims, are doing nothing to stop it.

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