by Dan Collyns
- The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has suspended the certification of Maderera Canales Tahuamanu (MCT), a logging company whose concession borders Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon.
- The company is accused of encroaching on the traditional territory of the Mashco Piro, an Indigenous group that lives in voluntary isolation and went viral after video captured the tribe on a beach.
- The suspension follows an incident in which at least two loggers were shot dead with arrows, one injured and several others are missing during a confrontation with the Mashco Piro.
- The FSC suspension takes effect Sept. 13 and will last eight months — a move Indigenous rights advocates say is welcome but short of the full cancelation they deem necessary to protect the isolated tribe.
The Forest Stewardship Council has suspended its certification of a controversial logging company in the Peruvian Amazon accused of encroaching on the traditional territory of the Mashco Piro, an Indigenous group that lives in voluntary isolation.
The move on Aug. 30 by the FSC, the world’s leading certifier of sustainable forestry products, followed reports indicating that at least two loggers were shot dead with arrows, one injured and several others missing following a confrontation with the Mashco Piro on Aug. 29. The incident was reported by FENAMAD, a local Indigenous federation that represents 39 communities in Peru’s Cusco and Madre de Dios regions.
The FSC has suspended for eight months its certification for Maderera Canales Tahuamanu (MCT), a logging company whose concession borders the 829,941-hectare (2.05-million-acre) Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve, home to the Mashco Piro.
It said the certification would be suspended from Sept. 13 while it investigates the case and meets with Peruvian authorities to “understand the land classification issues.” The FSC added that it had imposed the suspension in “response to concerns about the MCT’s forest management concession’s location relative to the territory of the Mashco Piro.”