Look but don’t touch

The NGO Survival International has released new images of isolated indigenous communities living in the Amazon rainforest. The groups avoid communication with the rest of civilization, and so were photographed from the air by a Brazilian government agency in the Brazilian jungle near the border with Peru. Survival International says it wants the photos to draw attention to the increasing threat posed to the groups' territory by illegal logging in the adjacent Peruvian forest. 

Brazilian journalist and blogger Altino Machado notes that NGOs have been fighting for years to get the Peruvian government to act decisively to protect the indigenous group’s land, “but little has been done.”

A former official with the government’s National Indian Foundation said that because the tribes exist in near-total isolation, they remain relatively unknown. “It’s difficult to even convince the state that they exist,” said José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles in the Survival International portuguese-language press release. “In addition, setting aside more land for them is very difficult, it’s a challenge because you will stir up a lot of special interests.”