- The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has suspended the certification of Maderera Canales Tahuamanu (MCT), a logging company whose concession borders Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon.
- The company is accused of encroaching on the traditional territory of the Mashco Piro, an Indigenous group that lives in voluntary isolation and went viral after video captured the tribe on a beach.
- The suspension follows an incident in which at least two loggers were shot dead with arrows, one injured and several others are missing during a confrontation with the Mashco Piro.
- The FSC suspension takes effect Sept. 13 and will last eight months — a move Indigenous rights advocates say is welcome but short of the full cancelation they deem necessary to protect the isolated tribe.
The Forest Stewardship Council has suspended its certification of a controversial logging company in the Peruvian Amazon accused of encroaching on the traditional territory of the Mashco Piro, an Indigenous group that lives in voluntary isolation.
The move on Aug. 30 by the FSC, the world’s leading certifier of sustainable forestry products, followed reports indicating that at least two loggers were shot dead with arrows, one injured and several others missing following a confrontation with the Mashco Piro on Aug. 29. The incident was reported by FENAMAD, a local Indigenous federation that represents 39 communities in Peru’s Cusco and Madre de Dios regions.
Peru’s Ministry of Culture said in a statement on Sept. 2 that it was investigating the reports and coordinating with the local prosecutors’ office and police to deploy a helicopter to the area where the incident took place on the Pariamanu River. There’s no official confirmation yet of whether the killed and missing loggers worked for the logging company, or if Mashco Piro members were responsible.
The FSC has suspended for eight months its certification for Maderera Canales Tahuamanu (MCT), a logging company whose concession borders the 829,941-hectare (2.05-million-acre) Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve, home to the Mashco Piro.
It said the certification would be suspended from Sept. 13 while it investigates the case and meets with Peruvian authorities to “understand the land classification issues.” The FSC added that it had imposed the suspension in “response to concerns about the MCT’s forest management concession’s location relative to the territory of the Mashco Piro.”
It added: “Recent developments have heightened concerns regarding the potential risks to the Mashco Piro’s safety and well-being.”
The move comes a month after at least one logger was reported injured in a confrontation between loggers and Mashco Piro men who used bows and arrows. Indigenous rights campaigners say the isolated people are being forced to flee the forest they inhabit due to timber extraction, both legal and illegal.
This also follows the appearance of more than 50 Mashco Piro men and boys on a beach in the Peruvian Amazon sparked global media coverage in July.
Kim Carstensen, director-general of FSC International, said in a statement that the council “is committed to protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights and vulnerable communities, which is central to our mission. These steps reflect our dedication to upholding the integrity of the FSC system and acting responsibly in the face of serious concerns.”
“It is crucial that we fully understand the complexities of this situation and ensure that our standards remain inclusive and protective of all communities,” he added.
Peruvian Indigenous organizations FENAMAD and AIDESEP, as well as campaign group Survival International, have demanded the permanent cancelation of MCT’s certification following Survival’s publication of images showing that the area is home to a large number of uncontacted Mashco Piro people.
Indigenous leader Julio Cusurichi, a member of AIDESEP’s board, called the suspension “an important step, but it’s not the end of the matter. We are going to keep up the fight until we get a historic victory.”
Other Indigenous advocacy groups expressed the same sentiment.
“This is welcome news — but only half of what’s required,” said Fiona Watson, research and advocacy director at Survival International. “The FSC has known for years that this company was operating inside the territory of the Mashco Piro, indeed there has been more than one fatal encounter between them and the loggers.”
According to Watson, the latest round of violence against loggers was entirely avoidable by Peruvian authorities who approved MCT’s logging concession in the first place. And as for the FSC which certified the concession, there’s no reason not to cancel the certification permanently, she said.
“Under Peruvian and international law, the Mashco Piro have the right to the ownership of their territory, and not to have it cut down around them,” she told Mongabay. “We expect the FSC to recognize this — anything less will ensure the campaign continues.”
The Indigenous organizations and Survival International will be watching developments closely to ensure this suspension isn’t just a “tactic to kick the problem into the long grass,” Watson said.
The seldom-seen Mashco Piro live mostly in the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve, but experts say their ancestral territory extends beyond it into several nearby forestry concessions, including MCT’s concession.
In 2015, the Ministry of Culture proposed upgrading the status of the territorial reserve to an Indigenous reserve to reflect the true extent of the Mashco Piro territory, but faced strong opposition from logging interests. The proposed move would have changed the reserve’s legal status, expanded its borders to include timber concessions, and prohibited any logging activity. Ultimately, however, the government didn’t go through with the upgrade.
The latest violent confrontation against loggers was entirely avoidable, said Watson.
Banner image: Members of Yuturi Warmi, originally from the community of Serena in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Photo: Yuturi Warmi Archive.
After isolated tribes’ rare appearance in Peruvian Amazon, big questions remain for their future
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