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Loggers, oil firms put jungle tribes at risk, report says

Five “uncontacted” tribes are at imminent risk of extinction as oil companies, colonists and loggers invade their territories. The semi-nomadic groups, who live deep in the forests of Peru, Brazil and Paraguay, are vulnerable to common Western diseases such as flu and measles but also risk being killed by armed gangs, a report by Survival International said.

The document, which identifies the five groups as the most threatened on Earth, said that 60 members of the Awa tribe have reportedly been fleeing from loggers and ranchers on their land near Maranhao, Brazil.

David Hill, a Survival researcher and coauthor of the report, said: “Logging roads have been bulldozed through a part of their territory where the uncontacted groups are living. The ranchers want land to graze cattle for beef. The loggers regularly block roads to prevent government teams from entering the area to investigate.”

Little is known about a group of 50 tribespeople living along the river Pardo in the west of the Brazilian Amazon, though there is plenty of evidence for their existence, including communal houses, arrows, baskets, hammocks and footprints along the river banks.

“Loggers operating out of Colniza [in Mato Grosso] have forced them to be constantly on the run, unable to cultivate crops and relying solely on hunting, gathering and fishing. It is believed the women have stopped giving birth,” the report said.

Perenco, an Anglo-French oil firm working in a proposed Indian reserve in northern Peru, is endangering tribes, it said.

“The company plans to send hundreds of workers into the region. In recent weeks, indigenous protesters have blockaded the Napo river in order to prevent Perenco boats from passing. In response, a naval gunboat was called in,” the report said.
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