Amazon road could cut uncontacted tribes’ land in half
Peru’s Congress is about to approve a highly controversial road that will slash in half the territory of at least two uncontacted tribes. - Congressmen are considering a law that could declare the project a ‘public necessity’, and consequently bypass huge indigenous opposition. The proposed road will run across the southeast of Peru’s Amazon from Puerto Esperanza in the Purus region near Brazil, to Iñapari. Three highly important protected areas lie in its path, including the Madre de Dios Reserve for uncontacted Indians. The project notably omits reference to uncontacted tribes, as well as opposition from the region’s indigenous peoples, who make up 80% of the population. They fear the road will attract an onslaught of illegal loggers and colonists who would devastate their forest and the uncontacted Indians living there.