Why uncontacted people are under growing threat

BOGOTA Protecting uncontacted peoples, experts say, will require both stronger laws and a shift in how the world views them — not as relics of the past, but as citizens of the planet whose survival affects everyone’s future

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Maipatzii Apiurina (left) and Herlin Odicio take a photograph at the launch of Survival International's major new report on the world's uncontacted indigenous peoples, in London.

(Associated Press)

Fees the depths of Brazil's Amazon to Indonesia’s rainforests, some of the world’s most isolated peoples are being squeezed by roads, miners and drug traffickers — a crisis unfolding far from public view or effective state protection. A new report by Survival International, a London-based Indigenous rights organization, attempts one of the broadest tallies yet, identifying at least 196 uncontacted Indigenous groups in IO countries, primarily in the South American nations sharing the Amazon rainforest. Released on Sunday, the report estimates that nearly 658 face threats from logging, about 408 from mining and around 208 from agribusiness.

“These are what | would call silent genocides — there are no TV crews, no journalists. But they are happening, and they're happening now,” said Fiona Watson, Survival’s research and advocacy director, who has worked on Indigenous rights for more than three decades.

The issue often receives little priority from governments, which critics say see uncontacted peoples as politically marginal because they don't 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 view them as barriers to development.