<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>From the depths of Brazil's Amazon to Indonesia's rainforests, some of the world's most isolated peoples are being squeezed by roads, miners and drug traffickers - a crisis unfolding far from public view or effective state protection.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A new report by Survival International, a London-based Indigenous rights organisation, attempts one of the broadest tallies yet, identifying at least 196 uncontacted Indigenous groups in 10 countries, primarily in the South American nations sharing the Amazon rainforest.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Released on Sunday, the report estimates that nearly 65 per cent face threats from logging, about 40 per cent from mining and around 20 per cent from agribusiness.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/mashco-piro-uncontacted-indigenous-amazon-tribe/e9da37cc-d2cd-4628-babb-4627b6d3fec2" rel="" target="_blank" title="Uncontacted tribe sighted in Amazon where loggers are active"><strong><span>Uncontacted tribe sighted in Amazon where loggers are active</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"These are what I would call silent genocides - there are no TV crews, no journalists. But they are happening, and they're happening now," Fiona Watson, Survival's research and advocacy director, who has worked on Indigenous rights for more than three decades, said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The issue often receives little priority from governments, which critics say see uncontacted peoples as politically marginal because they don't vote and their territories are often coveted for logging, mining and oil extraction. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Public debate is also shaped by stereotypes - some romanticise them as "lost tribes," while others view them as barriers to development.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/uncontacted-indigenous-groups-risk-vanishing-within-a-decade/b685dd2d-7fcd-46ee-b3f1-646fc644c9c0" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Survival's research concludes that half of these groups "could be wiped out within 10 years if governments and companies do not act..</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Who the uncontacted peoples are</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Uncontacted peoples are not "lost tribes" frozen in time, Watson said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They are contemporary societies that deliberately avoid outsiders after generations of violence, slavery and disease.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"They don't need anything from us," Watson said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"They're happy in the forest. They have incredible knowledge and they help keep these very valuable forests standing - essential to all humanity in the fight against climate change."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Survival's research shows that more than 95 per cent of the world's uncontacted peoples live in the Amazon, with smaller populations in South and South-East Asia and the Pacific. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>These communities live by hunting, fishing and small-scale cultivation, maintaining languages and traditions that predate modern nation-states.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/two-dead-underground-mine-explosion-far-west-nsw/4e39a4bc-ee81-481e-b5d1-0f9a1ec2abf6" target="_blank"><strong><span>Two dead after mine explosion near regional town</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Why contact can be deadly</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Groups living in voluntary isolation have "minimal to no contact with those outside of their own group," Subhra Bhattacharjee, director general of the Forest Stewardship Council and an Indigenous rights expert based in Bonn, Germany, said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"A simple cold that you and I recover from in a week … they could die of that cold."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Beyond disease, contact can destroy livelihoods and belief systems. International law requires free, prior and informed consent - known as FPIC - before any activity on Indigenous lands.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"But when you have groups living in voluntary isolation, who you cannot get close to without risking their lives, you cannot get FPIC," Bhattacharjee said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"No FPIC means no consent."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Her organisation follows a strict policy: "No contact, no-go zones," she said, arguing that if consent cannot be obtained safely, contact should not occur at all.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Associated Press reported last year on loggers killed by bow and arrow after entering Mashco Piro territory in Peru's Amazon, with Indigenous leaders warning that such clashes are inevitable when frontier zones go unpoliced.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/pauline-hansons-one-nation-to-change-name-to-one-nation/0e4a0580-8268-43d9-9c29-ba68efd50d71" target="_blank"><strong><span>Pauline Hanson changes party name as polling support surges</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>How the threats have evolved</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Watson, who has worked across the Amazon for 35 years, said early threats stemmed from colonisation and state-backed infrastructure. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>During Brazil's military dictatorship between 1964 and 1985, highways were bulldozed through the rainforest "without due regard" for the people living there.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The roads acted as a magnet for settlers," she said, describing how loggers and cattle ranchers followed, bringing gunmen and disease that wiped out entire communities.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A railway line now planned in Brazil could potentially affect three uncontacted peoples, she said, but the rise of organised crime poses an even greater risk.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Across Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, drug traffickers and illegal gold miners have moved deep into Indigenous territories.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Any chance encounter runs the risk of transmitting the flu, which can easily wipe out an uncontacted people within a year of contact," she said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"And bows and arrows are no match for guns.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Evangelical missionary incursions have also caused outbreaks. Watson recalled how, under former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, an evangelical pastor was placed in charge of the government's unit for uncontacted peoples and gained access to their coordinates.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/medicare-bulk-billing-changes-australia-november-explained/0d3f161a-0dec-4861-aff4-7f440fb43984" target="_blank"><strong><span>Aussies about to benefit from major $7.9 billion health boost</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Ways to protect uncontacted peoples</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Protecting uncontacted peoples, experts say, will require both stronger laws and a shift in how the world views them - not as relics of the past, but as citizens of the planet whose survival affects everyone's future.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Advocates have several recommendations.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>First, governments must formally recognise and enforce Indigenous territories, making them off-limits to extractive industries.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Mapping is crucial, Bhattacharjee said, because identifying the approximate territories of uncontacted peoples allows governments to protect those areas from loggers or miners. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But, she added, it must be done with extreme caution and from a distance to avoid contact that could endanger the groups' health or autonomy.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Second, corporations and consumers must help stop the flow of money driving destruction. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Survival's report calls for companies to trace their supply chains to ensure that commodities, such as gold, timber and soy, are not sourced from Indigenous lands.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Public opinion and pressure are essential," Watson said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It's largely through citizens and the media that so much has already been achieved to recognise uncontacted peoples and their rights."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Finally, advocates say the world must recognise why their protection matters. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Beyond human rights, these communities play an outsized role in stabilising the global climate.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"With the world under pressure from climate change, we will sink or swim together," Bhattacharjee said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>What the new report calls for</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Survival International's report urges a global no-contact policy: legal recognition of uncontacted territories, suspension of mining, oil and agribusiness projects in or near those lands and prosecution of crimes against Indigenous groups.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Watson said logging remains the biggest single threat, but mining is close behind. She pointed to the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa on Indonesia's Halmahera Island, where nickel for electric-vehicle batteries is being mined.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"People think electric cars are a green alternative," she said, "but mining companies are operating on the land of uncontacted peoples and posing enormous threats."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In South America, illegal gold miners in the Yanomami territory of Brazil and Venezuela continue to use mercury to extract gold — contamination that has poisoned rivers and fish.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The impact is devastating — socially and physically," Watson said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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