New aerial photographs show at least four illegal logging camps inside the Murunahua Reserve in Peru, Survival International reported yesterday. The Reserve is located deep in the Amazonian rainforest of Peru and was established to protect the uncontacted Murunahua Indians. The illegal logging camps present a huge threat to the Murunahua Indians, who like their neighboring ancestors, do not have the same immunity to common diseases that we do.
The report comes just a day after Peru confirmed that eight members of the Amazonian Machiguenga tribe tested positive for Swine Flu. They are the first confirmed cases among Amazonian Indians. But their infection could lead to much greater problems, as the Machiguenga do have intermittent contact with much more isolated, and vulnerable, Amazonian tribes.
Uncontacted tribes are exactly that – those that have not been in contact with modern outsiders. They are extremely vulnerable to disease because they do not have the same immunity to Western diseases, or even everyday pathogens that we carry with us unknowingly. It is not uncommon for an uncontacted community to lose 50% of its members when contact does occur. This occurred not too long ago within the Murunahua people, when some Murunahua tribes lost half their people to disease after coming into contact with illegal loggers in their territory. In fact, the threat outsiders present is a story that has played out repeatedly throughout the history of Western colonization of the Americas. However, with the advent of the human rights movement, these tribes now have some protection against the outside world that inevitably poses such a threat to them. The devastation of these Murunahua communities ten years ago is what led the Peruvian government to set up the Murunahua Reserve for their protection.
These days another threat has emerged, that of capitalist gain. Illegal logging brings outsiders in close proximity with uncontacted tribes, usually to the tribe’s peril. In addition to possible diseases that the loggers may bring with them, there is also a history of violent conflict between indigenous tribes and loggers, each who see the other as not deserving of the land. Confrontations between loggers and Amazonian Indians in Peru have sent tribes pouring across the border into neighboring Brazil. This in turn creates new land struggles and new problems, which unfortunately are often very easy for governments to ignore.
Part of the problem is the very nature of the situation. In 2007, the UN adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which protects the political, social, cultural, and economic rights of indigenous people around the world. But a brief reading of the Declaration illustrates how little it does to help uncontacted tribes. One example: the Declaration encourages governments to take action to protect indigenous rights in consultation with indigenous communities. This in an excellent approach for the vast majority of indigenous cultures throughout the world. But the entire point of uncontacted tribes is that they are uncontacted; making contact is one of the greatest threats we pose to them. The best thing to do, at least for time being, is commit ourselves to leaving them alone.
That means taking a stand against logging and oil exploration in the Amazon, and helping Amazonian governments find other paths to economic prosperity. It also means taking responsibility for the threat that we unwittingly pose. While it may seem odd that there are people who live completely separate from the world that 6.5 billion people inhabit, this is the situation we find ourselves in. And whether they know it or not, the Murunahua people and their uncontacted brethren enjoy the same human rights guaranteeing health, safety, and cultural prosperity that we enjoy.
