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from the depths of brazil Amazon In Indonesia’s rainforests, some of the world’s most isolated people are being squeezed by roads, miners and drug traffickers – a crisis that remains far from public view or effective state protection.
A new report from London-based Survival International indigenous The rights organization, attempting one of the most comprehensive counts to date, has identified at least 196 uncontacted indigenous groups in 10 countries, primarily in South American countries that share the Amazon rainforest. The report released on Sunday estimated that about 65% is at risk from logging, about 40% from mining and about 20% from agribusiness.
Fiona Watson, Survival’s research and advocacy director, who has worked on indigenous rights for more than three decades, said, “These are what I would call silent genocides – there are no TV crews, no journalists. But they’re happening, and they’re still happening.”
The issue often receives little priority from governments, with critics saying that uncontacted peoples are politically marginalized because they do not vote and their territories are often coveted for logging, mining and oil extraction. Public debate is also shaped by stereotypes – some romanticize them as “lost tribes”, while others see them as obstacles to development.
Survival’s research concludes that half of these groups “could disappear within 10 years” if governments and companies do not act.
Who are the uncontacted people?
Uncontacted peoples are not “lost tribes” frozen in time, Watson said. They are contemporary societies that deliberately avoid outsiders after generations of violence, slavery and disease.
“They don’t need anything from us,” Watson said. “They are happy in the wild. They have incredible knowledge and they help keep these extremely valuable forests standing – which are essential for all of humanity in the fight against climate change.”
Survival’s research shows that more than 95% of the world’s uncontacted peoples live in the Amazon, with smaller populations in South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific. These communities live by hunting, fishing, and small-scale farming, maintaining languages and traditions that predate modern nation-states.
Why can contact be fatal?
Dr. Subhra Bhattacharjee, director general of the Forest Stewardship Council and an indigenous rights expert based in Bonn, Germany, said groups living in voluntary isolation “have minimal or no contact with people outside their group.” “A simple cold that you and I get over in a week…they can die from that cold.”
Beyond disease, exposure can destroy livelihoods and belief systems. International law requires free, prior and informed consent before any activity on indigenous lands – known as FPIC.
“But when you have groups living in voluntary isolation, close to whom you cannot go without risking their lives, you cannot get FPIC,” Bhattacharjee said. “No FPIC means no consent.”
His organization follows a strict policy: “No contact, no-go zone,” he said, arguing that if consent cannot be achieved safely, there should be no contact at all.
The Associated Press reported last year on loggers killed with bows and arrows after entering Mashco Piro territory in the Peruvian Amazon, with indigenous leaders warning that such clashes are inevitable when border areas become uncontrolled.
How threats have evolved
Watson, who has worked in the Amazon for 35 years, said the early threats arose from colonization and state-backed infrastructure. During Brazil’s military dictatorship between 1964 and 1985, highways were bulldozed through the rainforest “without proper respect” for the people who lived there.
“The roads acted as a magnet for settlers,” he said, describing how loggers and cattlemen followed them, bringing with them gunfire and diseases that wiped out entire communities.
A railway line has now been planned brazil That could potentially affect as many as three uncontacted people, he said, but the rise of organized crime poses an even greater risk.
In Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, drug traffickers and illegal gold miners have moved deep into indigenous territories. “Any casual encounter carries the risk of spreading flu, which can easily wipe out uncontacted people within a year of exposure,” he said. “And bows and arrows are no match for guns.”
Outbreaks have also been caused by evangelical missionary infiltration. Watson recalled how, under former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, an evangelical pastor was put in charge of the government’s unit for uncontacted peoples and gained access to their coordinates. “Their mission was to make forced contact – ‘to save souls’,” she said. “It’s incredibly dangerous.”
Ways to protect people without contact
Experts say it will require stronger laws to protect uncontacted people and a change in how the world views them — not as relics of the past, but as citizens of the planet whose existence affects everyone’s future.
Advocates have several recommendations.
First, governments would have to formally recognize and enforce indigenous territories, thereby taking them off-limits to extractive industries.
Mapping is important, Bhattacharjee said, because identifying areas of estimated uncontacted people allows governments to protect those areas from loggers or miners. But, he added, this should be done with extreme caution and from a distance to avoid contact that could jeopardize the health or autonomy of the groups.
Second, corporations and consumers must help stop the flow of money that brings destruction. Survival’s report calls on companies to trace their supply chains to ensure that commodities such as gold, timber and soy are not taken from indigenous lands.
“Public opinion and pressure are important,” Watson said. “It is largely through citizens and the media that much has already been achieved in recognizing uncontacted people and their rights.”
Ultimately, advocates say the world must understand why their safety matters. Beyond human rights, these communities play a huge role in stabilizing the global climate.
“With the world under the pressure of climate change, together we will sink or swim,” Bhattacharjee said.
uneven response from governments
International treaties such as the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirm the right to self-determination and the right to remain uncontacted if they wish. But enforcement varies widely.
In Peru, Congress recently rejected a proposal to create the Yavari-Mirim Indigenous Reserve, a move indigenous federations said left isolated groups exposed to loggers and smugglers.
In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sought to rebuild security, weakened under Bolsonaro, by boosting budgets and patrols.
And in Ecuador, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled this year that the government failed to protect the Tageri and Taromonen people living in voluntary isolation in Yasuni National Park.
Watson warned that political forces linked to agribusiness and evangelical groups are now working to roll back earlier gains.
“The achievements of the last 20 or 30 years are in danger of being undone,” he said.
What does the new report say?
Survival International’s report urges a global uncontacted policy: legal recognition of uncontacted areas, suspension of mining, oil and agribusiness projects in or near those lands, and prosecution of crimes against indigenous groups.
Watson said logging remains the biggest threat, but mining is close behind. He pointed to unnamed Hongana Manyawa on Indonesia’s Halmahera island, where nickel is being mined for electric-vehicle batteries.
“People think electric cars are a green option,” he said, “but mining companies are operating on no-people lands and creating huge dangers.”
In South America, illegal gold miners in Brazil and the Yanomami region of Venezuela continue to use mercury to extract gold – pollution that has poisoned rivers and fish.
“The impact is devastating – socially and physically,” Watson said.
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