Pronouncement: We reject the FSC’s decision to maintain logging company certification that threatens the lives of the indigenous Mashco Piro in isolation in the Peruvian Amazon

The indigenous organizations of the Amazon, the Coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), and the Native Federation of the Madre de Dios River and Tributaries (FENAMAD) present this public joint pronouncement in response to the statement recently published by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC’s statement was a response to the global outcry following the campaign by Survival International, which denounces the FSC’s indirect involvement in grave human rights violations by legitimizing with its certification the logging activities of the forestry company Canales Tahuamanu S.A.C. This company operates in areas of the traditional territory of the Mashco Piro isolated indigenous people in the Madre de Dios region in the Peruvian Amazon, a situation denounced on multiple occasions by our organizations.

The response issued by the FSC in their statement is extremely disappointing considering the seriousness of the case and generates great concern because it admits that the continued certification of the company’s logging operations is carried out with full knowledge of the context and the risks to the life and integrity of the Mashco Piro people, as well as to the company’s own working staff.

Although the FSC publicly acknowledges that there is “a critical problem” in its statement, it does not announce the required and logical suspension of the company’s certification but instead only commits to carrying out an “exhaustive analysis” of the case. We find that the FSC’s response is completely insufficient and seems to indicate that this organization, instead of addressing and providing a solution to a systematic problem that leads to human rights violations, tries to evade responsibilities through stall tactics. Furthermore, based on the arguments presented by the FSC in its statement, it can be interpreted that the announced “exhaustive analysis” is not going to generate significant changes in the position of said organization. The same statement reports that the circumstances of the case have already been subject to two previous evaluations in 2022 and 2023 without sufficient reasons being found to suspend the company’s certification.

Specifically, the FSC states that the previous evaluations produced two arguments that supposedly justify continuing to support the certification of the logging company Canales Tahuamanu S.A.C.: 1) that the concession in which it operates is legally valid, and 2) that it has “protocols to prevent encounters with members of the Mashco Piro, which were designed in coordination with the Ministry of Culture of Peru”. These arguments used by the FSC do not guarantee compliance with its own standards that supposedly guarantee that the wood products marketed by the company have a responsible origin and comply with respect for human rights.

In this sense, the fact that the concession in question has been granted by the Peruvian State and the FSC presumes it to be legally valid does not justify the invasion of the territory of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, nor the destruction of the forests on which their survival depends. This destruction is due to the presence of heavy machinery along hundreds of kilometers of newly constructed logging roads, massive invasions of logging workers, and the exposure of the Mashco Piro to situations of unwanted contact that could lead to their genocide.

Likewise, the fact that the logging company has “protocols to prevent encounters with the Mashco Piro” does not guarantee that these are in any way effective measures. In August 2022, a logging worker of the Canales Tahuamanu S.A.C. company, Jean Marco del Águila Angulo, died from arrow wounds in a violent encounter with members of the isolated Mashco Piro indigenous peoples, and his fellow logging worker, Genis Huayabban Padilla, was also seriously injured by an arrow from the Mashco Piro.

This statement reflects that the FSC continues to ignore the seriousness of the complaints filed and the implications and responsibility that its negligent position entails regarding the risks and impacts on the human rights of the Mashco Piro indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. For this reason, as the representative indigenous organizations at the regional, national, and international levels in the Amazon, we want to express that:

1. The FSC has been aware of the serious consequences of the operations of the logging company Canales Tahuamanu S.A.C. in the territory of isolated indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon since at least the year 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, FENAMAD sent several formal communications to the FSC warning about the risk of genocide implied by the reactivation of logging activities in the territory of the isolated Mashco Piro indigenous peoples.
2. In August 2020, the FSC provided a first response on the case and committed to carrying out a review as part of the “FSC systems and procedure.” However, based on the re-evaluation report carried out in 2020, the FSC decided to renew the logging company’s certification for 5 more years, giving a clear message: respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and especially the lives of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation is not a priority for the FSC.
3. The alerts raised by the indigenous organizations in Peru continued in subsequent years, including during meetings held with the Permanent Committee of Indigenous Peoples (CPPI) of the FSC and the FSC Indigenous Foundation. However, an effective response was never provided by the FSC. Unfortunately, in August 2022, before the deaf ears of the Peruvian State, the logging company Canales Tahuamanu S.A.C., and the FSC, a tragic incident occurred between isolated Mashco Piro indigenous peoples and the logging company workers, which left one logging worker dead and another injured. The logging worker of Canales Tahuamanu S.A.C. who was killed in this tragic incident was just 21 years of age, and his family will suffer from this heartbreaking loss of their son for the rest of their lives. Despite this tragedy, the FSC continues to certify this logging company.
4. The decision by the FSC to maintain the certification of the Canales Tahuamanu S.A.C. logging company over the years despite the repeated formal complaints presented by the indigenous organizations and the overwhelming proof of grave human rights violations has been made in systematic contravention of their own policies and commitments to sustainability and respect for indigenous rights. This also implies indirect responsibilities in relation to the violation of the human rights of the Mashco Piro isolated indigenous peoples, as well as the risks to the physical integrity and lives of the logging company’s own working staff.
5. The response of the FSC in 2020, as well as its recent public statement in the face of the overwhelming evidence disseminated by Survival International in the campaign to protect the Mashco Piro people, makes us – the representative indigenous organizations – think that the investigations promised by the FSC are nothing more than stall tactics to allow the continuation of the massive logging activities in the Mashco Piro’s territory disguised under supposed standards of social and environmental responsibility. At the same time, the FSC makes it crystal clear that their “evaluations” do not assess the real risks and grave threats to the lives of the isolated indigenous peoples, as well as the people who work in logging concessions that operate in their territories.
6. It is essential that the FSC take immediate and concrete actions in accordance with its own standards to address this serious situation and stop being complicit in the violation of the human rights of the Mashco Piro indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation.
7. The FSC’s commitment to carry out more investigations and evaluations is completely insufficient since the evidence is already clear and conclusive. Since 2016, the Peruvian State has officially recognized that the logging concessions of Canales Tahuamanu S.A.C. certified by the FSC operate in the territories of isolated indigenous peoples, concluding that it is not possible to mitigate the grave risks of these logging operations through anthropological contingency plans. Therefore, it is extremely urgent to exclude and relocate the logging concessions, thus leaving the Mashco Piro’s territory free of logging activities to guarantee the survival of these isolated indigenous peoples and avoid the loss of more human lives.

For these reasons, the indigenous organizations demand that the FSC:

1. Immediately withdraw the certification “NC-FM-COC-005-485” granted to the logging concessions 17-TAH/C-J-012-02 and 17-TAH/C-J-013-02, as only in this way can the FSC comply with the principles and standards that they have publicly stated supposedly guide their activities: “responsible forest management and unconditional respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and workers.”
2. Immediately carry out an internal investigation that explains the reasons why, after previous internal evaluations were carried out in 2022 and 2023 and even though a tragic death occurred in 2022, the FSC still decided to continue certifying the Canales Tahuamanu logging company and maintains its certification to this day.
3. Modify the internal policies of the FSC to explicitly prohibit the certification of extractive companies operating in the territories of isolated indigenous peoples, whether or not they are officially recognized by the States.
4. Carry out a comprehensive reform of the FSC’s internal indigenous governance system, guaranteeing true representativeness and timely decision-making in response to alerts regarding the violation of indigenous peoples’ rights by FSC-certified logging companies.

Finally, we consider that the pertinent investigations promised by the FSC can and should be carried out but only after having withdrawn the certification of the logging company Canales Tahuamanu S.A.C. Otherwise, the indigenous organizations that subscribe to this pronouncement will be forced to withdraw from possible spaces of dialogue with the FSC regarding this case as these have proven ineffective to date.

It is time for the FSC to stop endorsing the systematic violation of the rights of indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon.

The indigenous peoples demand concrete actions from the FSC, no more empty words!