“One company, Canales Tahuamanu, that operates inside the Mashco Piro territory, has built more than 200km of roads for its logging trucks to extract timber,” states Survival International. Its allegedly sustainable and ethical operations in that area have earned it approval from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), despite the Peruvian government’s admission eight years ago that it was removing trees in the Mashco Piro area.

“This is irrefutable evidence that many Mashco Piro live in this area, which the government has not only failed to protect, but actually sold off to logging companies,” reads a statement issued by Alfredo Vargas Pio, President of the local Indigenous organization FENAMAD. The new pictures were made public. Because “the logging workers could bring in new diseases that would wipe out the Mashco Piro and there’s also a risk of violence on either side,” the Mashco Piro’s territorial rights must be recognized and legally protected.

It’s unclear if the company plans to comply with Survival International’s request that the FSC rescind its accreditation of the logging company’s operations since then.

The great majority of uncontacted Mashco Piro people who reside just a few miles from the site of the loggers’ intended activities are depicted in these incredible images. “In fact, one logging company, Canales Tahuamanu, is already operating inside Mashco Piro territory, which the Mashco Piro have made clear they oppose,” stated Survival International Director Caroline Pearce. “Humanitarian disaster in the making—it is critical that the loggers are expelled and that the land of the Mashco Piro people is at last sufficiently protected. The certification procedure will be ridiculed if Canales Tahuamanu’s certification is not immediately revoked by the FSC.

The Mashco Piro tribe is thought to be the largest uncontacted tribe on Earth, numbering about 750 individuals. The precise population size is unknown, however they are a group that lives deep in southeast Peru’s rainforests.