Using Drones to Protect Uncontacted Indigenous Peoples’ Territories
December 2, 2022
We’re helping protect the forest homes of Indigenous groups in voluntary isolation against incursions and unwanted contact with the modern world.
Keeping their forests safe and intact is essential for their survival.
The Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve in Peru, where our Los Amigos Conservation Concession is located, is home to various communities of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation or Initial Contact (often referred to by the Spanish acronym PIACI), like the Mashco Piro. These communities have maintained their autonomy and freedom with spears, arrows, and a nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering for centuries with no contact with the western world due to previous traumatic contact experiences. They have no fixed villages, no agriculture, and shun contact with the modern world. The forest they depend on is among the most remote, intact, and biodiverse rainforests in the Amazon and the world, and we are fighting to keep it that way.
Together with the Frankfurt Zoological Society of Peru (FZS Peru), our sister organization, Conservación Amazónica – ACCA, organized a training workshop on drone surveillance, protocols and procedures, and GPS applications so that park rangers in the Madre de Dios region can better monitor where these communities are without encroaching on their territories. These communities must remain intact and uncontacted out of respect for their rights, ancestral lifestyle, and the health of the forested areas they inhabit. The training provides these park rangers with the tools needed to safely monitor their territory for any incursions or threats.