The Peruvian rainforest near the border with Brazil is home to the largest known uncontacted tribe in the world: the Mashco Piro.
But their territory is now under threat as never before.
A logging company called Canales Tahuamanu has been extracting timber from their land for years. It has built more than 200km of new roads since 2016, putting the Mashco Piro’s survival at serious risk: the destruction of their forest, chance encounters with the loggers, and the spread of disease could all wipe them out.
Incredibly, Canales Tahuamanu has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This stamp of approval is supposed to guarantee that the company’s operation is both sustainable and ethical, but that clearly isn’t the case here.
More than 14,000 of you have written to FSC requesting they cancel the certification and, because of this international pressure, the director general of FSC has announced they're suspending the certification for 8 months. It’s not nearly enough! People have already lost their lives, and the situation is getting worse.
Please write to FSC to tell them to cancel Canales Tahuamanu's certification once and for all. The company, which uses the certification as a stamp of approval for its operations, is already under pressure from Indigenous organizations in Peru to withdraw from the Mashco Piro territory. Losing the certification will be a powerful signal - to the company and the government - that logging in this area must stop, before it’s too late for the Mashco Piro.
Your email will be sent to the Director General and relevant staff of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC):
Kim Carstensen, Director General, FSC
Zandra Martinez, President of the Board of Directors, FSC
Bruno Rath, Director Regional for Latin America, FSC
Selina Baños Velásquez, Manager of Indigenous Engagement, FSC Indigenous Foundation
