The Original Guardians of Nature Are Doing Their Part. Are the Rest of Us?

Never has it been more urgent than now to protect the right to self-determination of Indigenous Peoples living in voluntary isolation and initial contact. Indigenous Peoples whose ways of life and cultural integrity have been unperturbed for thousands of years, or who have been forced into isolation, now face multiple threats due to demographic pressures, unsustainable economic growth and consumption, and the devastating impacts of the climate crisis.

Mining, oil, and gas operations in protected areas combined with drug trafficking, illegal wildlife trade, the clearing of forests, cattle ranching, industrial agriculture, and infrastructure projects without free prior and informed consent, are all happening simultaneously at an unprecedented scale and pose an imminent threat to their very survival as peoples.

Jarawa Tribal Reserve-natural coastline of the Andaman Islands with residents. Photo credit: ©Manish Chandi

Approximately 200 Indigenous Peoples live in voluntary and forced isolation or initial contact, in remote forests of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru and Venezuela. Whilst there is no universally accepted definition for Indigenous Peoples in such situations, the central principle of ‘no-contact’ underpins global advocacy and protection policies in order to prevent their extinction as peoples.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) works in several of these countries, including the Peruvian Amazon and in Yasuni National Park of Ecuador, where the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous Peoples live in isolation. While the 700,000-hectare Tagaeri Taromenane Intangible Zone (ZITT) was created to safeguard their territory and is off limits to all extractives to preserve its cultural and biological significance, the ZITT faces numerous threats that WCS and its partners are working to counter.

In the Amazon the territorial corridor of Panoan and Arawakan Isolated Indigenous Peoples covers nine million hectares, of which 80 percent is in Peru. There are at least 6 identified and 4 unidentified isolated peoples who inhabit the corridor and do not share territory with any other human settlements, but face significant threats.

WCS’s Lago Preto Paredon conservation concession, located in the Yavari basin. Photo credit: Esteban Fong ©WCS Peru

The Mashco Piro recently emerged from the interior of the Peruvian Amazon due to pressures from logging concessions. And in Yavari-Tapiche’s Territorial corridor of isolated Indigenous Peoples and contiguous forests that covers 16 million hectares, a significant proportion of which falls in Brazil, there are dozens of both identified and unidentified isolated peoples. Many share territory with other Indigenous Peoples that have established contact. This is possibly the largest expanse of high integrity forest continuously inhabited by Indigenous Peoples in isolation.

Examples of Indigenous Peoples whose culture was lost with their initial contact with outsiders include the death of Boa Sr in the Andaman Islands in 2010. A deep tragedy for our collective humanity, her death led to the extinction of the Bo language, oral history, traditional ecological knowledge, and culture.

There remain a handful of Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation in the Andamans. The Indian Government has enforced strict protection to ensure no contact with the Sentinelese. The Jarawa and Onge of the Andaman Islands and Shompen of Great Nicobar Island likewise have special protections, but their existence is threatened by unchecked development, tour operators, settler communities, and disease brought on by outsiders.

Remote village of Kwiop, located in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Photo credit: ©Elodie Van Lierde

We must do everything possible to protect Indigenous Peoples in voluntary or forced isolation and initial contact. The loss of their stewardship of nature will lead to destruction of high integrity forests, biodiversity, and our ability to combat the climate crisis. We therefore call for greater legislative protections and recognition in policy formulation, multi-disciplinary program design and partnerships, funding, and support for their collective rights to lands and territories.

This starts with respecting and protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. States must re-examine concession licenses, laws, policies, and budgets that prioritize development, economic growth, and resource extraction without concern for the forests, seas, and rivers on which the survival of isolated and newly contacted Indigenous Peoples depends. That includes mining for renewables to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Conservation organizations and governments need to train all staff and partners on the central principle of ‘no-contact’ and actors who may pose unintentional risk to them. We must also advocate for legal sanctions against individuals who do not respect the principle of no-contact.

Governmental agencies, conservation organizations, and funders can support international working groups, transboundary networks, and cross border initiatives aimed at protection— including regional Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and in-country networks that advocate and strategize for the protection of Indigenous peoples in such status.

Lastly, we have to support the broader social and natural ecosystem by strengthening and resourcing the territorial management systems of Indigenous Peoples who live adjacent to Indigenous Peoples in voluntary, forced isolation, or have recently experienced initial contact.

Governments and organizations have to partner across sectors to implement previous recommendations and adapt protection strategies to evolving threats and pressures on these territories. Strengthening cross- and within- borders security, addressing corruption, and protecting defenders of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in such status are all part of the comprehensive solution. Indigenous Peoples are doing their part in protecting our planet. The questions is, are the rest of us?

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