In a sobering warning delivered on October 27, 2025, Survival International, a London-based Indigenous rights organization, sounded the alarm that nearly half of the world’s uncontacted Indigenous communities could vanish within the next decade. The group’s new report, unveiled at a press conference in London attended by U.S. actor and longtime Indigenous rights supporter Richard Gere, paints a stark picture of the mounting threats these isolated peoples face from logging, mining, agribusiness, and encroaching modernity.
The numbers are eye-opening: Survival International has identified at least 196 uncontacted groups across 10 countries, with more than 90 percent living deep within the Amazon rainforest—primarily in Brazil, but also in Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. Smaller populations persist in Indonesia, India, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific. These communities, sometimes referred to as "uncontacted" or "voluntarily isolated," deliberately avoid outsiders after generations of violence, slavery, and disease. As Fiona Watson, Survival’s research and advocacy director, put it, "They don’t need anything from us. 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."
Yet, the threats are relentless. The report estimates that nearly 65 percent of these groups face imminent danger from logging, about 40 percent from mining, and around 20 percent from agribusiness. The situation is especially dire in the Amazon, where roads, miners, and drug traffickers are squeezing Indigenous territories—often far from public view or effective state protection. "These are what I would call silent genocides—there are no TV crews, no journalists. But they are happening, and they're happening now," Watson said during the report’s release, according to the Associated Press.
The dangers are not just theoretical. The Kakataibo community of Peru’s Ucayali region, for instance, faces an uncertain future due to illegal logging and cocoa cultivation. Herlin Odicio, a Kakataibo member who advocates for his people, warned at the London press conference, "In Peru, the government is erasing the laws that protect Indigenous rights." He added, "We are not asking the government for a favour. This is an ancestral right." The weakening of national protections, Survival International notes, risks nothing less than "extermination" for communities like the Kakataibo.
Elsewhere, the drive for green technology has its own dark side. In Indonesia, the Hongana Manyawa—nomadic hunter-gatherers on Halmahera Island—face existential threats from nickel mining, which is booming due to global demand for electric vehicle batteries. "People think electric cars are a green alternative," Watson explained, "but mining companies are operating on the land of uncontacted peoples and posing enormous threats." The same story repeats in South America, where illegal gold miners in the Yanomami territory of Brazil and Venezuela use mercury to extract gold, poisoning rivers and fish and devastating both the environment and the people who depend on it.
The risks of contact with outsiders are not limited to land grabs and pollution. Disease transmission remains a deadly threat. Dr. Subhra Bhattacharjee, director general of the Forest Stewardship Council and Indigenous rights expert, explained, "A simple cold that you and I recover from in a week... they could die of that cold." Contact can also destroy livelihoods and belief systems. International law requires free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) before any activity on Indigenous lands, but as Bhattacharjee noted, "When you have groups living in voluntary isolation, who you cannot get close to without risking their lives, you cannot get FPIC. No FPIC means no consent." Her organization follows a strict "no contact, no-go zones" policy, arguing that if consent cannot be safely obtained, contact should not occur at all.
History is littered with examples of disastrous contact. During Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985), highways were bulldozed through the rainforest with little regard for the people living there. "The roads acted as a magnet for settlers," Watson recalled, describing how loggers and cattle ranchers followed, bringing gunmen and disease that wiped out entire communities. Today, the rise of organized crime—drug traffickers and illegal gold miners—has only deepened the crisis. In April 2025, Indian authorities arrested a U.S. tourist attempting to approach the Sentinelese community, who live in strict isolation on an island where outsiders are banned to prevent the introduction of deadly diseases.
Religious incursions have also proved dangerous. Under former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, evangelical missionaries sought to force contact with uncontacted peoples. Watson described how an evangelical pastor was placed in charge of the government’s unit for uncontacted peoples and gained access to their coordinates. "Their mission was to force contact—to 'save souls,'" she said. "That is incredibly dangerous."
Despite international treaties such as the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 and the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirm the right to self-determination and voluntary isolation, enforcement is patchy at best. In Peru, Congress recently rejected a proposal to create the Yavari-Mirim Indigenous Reserve, leaving isolated groups exposed to loggers and traffickers. In Ecuador, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled this year that the government failed to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples in Yasuni National Park. Brazil, under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has sought to rebuild protections weakened under Bolsonaro, increasing budgets and patrols for uncontacted peoples. But, as Watson warned, "Achievements of the last 20 or 30 years are in danger of being dismantled."
Survival International’s report lays out a series of urgent recommendations: formal recognition and enforcement of Indigenous territories, making them off-limits to extractive industries; suspension of mining, oil, and agribusiness projects in or near those lands; and prosecution of crimes against Indigenous groups. Corporations and consumers also have a role to play—by demanding supply chain transparency and refusing to buy commodities sourced from Indigenous lands. "Public opinion and pressure are essential," Watson said. "It's largely through citizens and the media that so much has already been achieved to recognize uncontacted peoples and their rights."
Ultimately, the fate of these communities is tied to the fate of the world’s forests and the global climate. As Bhattacharjee put it, "With the world under pressure from climate change, we will sink or swim together." The clock is ticking, and the choices made in the coming years will determine whether the planet’s most isolated peoples can continue their way of life—or whether they will disappear, taking with them irreplaceable knowledge and the last untouched corners of the Earth.
