Peru considers long-delayed Amazon reserve to protect uncontacted tribes

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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A commission in Peru was scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to create a long-delayed reserve in a remote stretch of the Amazon that would protect five uncontacted tribes from outside encroachment.

The Yavari Mirim Indigenous Reserve, along the Loreto region’s border with Brazil, would include areas where the Matses, Matis, Korubo, Kulina-Pano and Flecheiro — also known as Tavakina – live in voluntary isolation with no sustained contact with the outside world.

The groups are highly vulnerable to disease and exploitation. Indigenous communities across Peru’s Amazon also face mounting threats from illegal logging, mining, oil and gas drilling, and drug trafficking.

The proposed reserve spans 1.17 million hectares (2.9 million acres), roughly the size of Jamaica.

Two decades of discussions

The proposal, first backed by Indigenous organizations in 2003, has languished for more than two decades. It is going before Peru’s Commission for Indigenous Peoples in Isolation, a body of multiple government ministries that must approve the plan before it can be sent to the Cabinet for formal creation by supreme decree from the Ministry of Culture, the government agency tasked with protecting Indigenous peoples.

Under Peru’s 2006 Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact law, the state is required to establish reserves for such groups, and a 2016 court ruling ordered the government to expedite Yavari Mirim and other pending protections.

The commission was expected to vote later Thursday, though Indigenous leaders and rights groups caution that the decision could be delayed, as has happened in past sessions on similar reserves.

The vote comes as some lawmakers push to amend Peru’s Indigenous Peoples in Isolation law to require periodic reviews of existing and proposed reserves and give Congress more authority to change or cancel them. Backers of the measure argue that proposals such as Yavari Mirim have been tied up for nearly two decades because there is not enough conclusive evidence of uncontacted peoples in the area. Indigenous organizations counter that the evidence is conclusive and that amending the law would weaken it and dismantle long-fought protections.

Peruvian environmental lawyer César Ipenza told The Associated Press the political resistance to establishing such reserves has been persistent.

“It’s not unusual that in recent years we’ve seen resistance to recognizing territorial reserves for Indigenous peoples in isolation,” he said. “Unfortunately, there’s a current that seeks to deny their existence, or argue that these lands should not be designated for them but for investment and economic activity.”

New evidence of Indigenous presence

Advocates say the delay has left the forest and its inhabitants exposed to incursions common in Peru’s peripheral Amazon borderlands.

A government study delivered in 2024 documented more than 100 new pieces of evidence of Indigenous presence — including maloca communal shelters, cultivated plots, clay pots, bows and arrows — and mapped at least 25 distinct settlements. Researchers estimate at least 640 people live in isolation inside the proposed reserve, relying entirely on the forest for food, medicine and survival.

Ipenza said the reluctance extends beyond Congress.

“In recent years there’s also been resistance from within the Executive Branch itself to avoid creating, establishing or recognizing these spaces where the state has an obligation to protect and set them aside for Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation,” he said.

Indigenous leaders say the reserve would also benefit neighboring communities through formal protection committees, health and education services, and environmental recovery that supports sustainable hunting and forest regeneration.

The Ministry of Culture, which would be responsible for implementing the reserve if approved, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“No more excuses”

WOLA, a U.S.-based human rights group, stressed the urgency in a statement on Wednesday, saying Peru should “immediately establish the Yavari Mirim Indigenous Reserve” to safeguard both the tribes and their forest home.

Recent reported sightings of the uncontacted Mashco Piro tribe near a logging bridge construction — a development activists say raises the risk of deadly disease and violent clashes — highlight how infrastructure projects can dangerously expose remote groups to outside contact.

The proposal has faced pushback from logging concession holders and regional business groups in Loreto, who argue new reserves restrict economic development. Environmental advocates say extractive industry interests have also contributed to repeated delays.

“There are no more excuses,” said Pablo Chota, a leader with ORPIO, which represents Amazonian communities in northern Peru. “The evidence is overwhelming, and the state’s duty is clear: protect the lives of the peoples of Yavari Mirim.”

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