BRASILIA (Reuters) - Isolated native Indians in the Amazon forest of Brazil and Peru remain threatened by advancing loggers despite growing international attention to their plight, a senior Brazilian official said on Thursday.
"Pressure from Peruvian loggers continues, it's a concern,"Marcio Meira, head of the government's Indian affairs agency,Funai, told the foreign press association in Brasilia.
Brazil's Acre state along the border with Peru is one ofthe world's last refuges for such groups, but increasingactivity by wildcat miners and loggers puts them at risk.
Dramatic pictures of pigment-covered Indians from theregion threatening the photographer's aircraft with bows andarrows were carried in May by media worldwide.
The Peruvian ambassador to Brazil subsequently told Meirahis government was concerned about the issue and preparingmeasures, without detailing what these were.
Brazil has 26 confirmed native Indian tribes that live withlittle or no contact with the outside world. There areunconfirmed reports of an additional 35 such groups.
Many of them live in the forest like their forefathers didcenturies ago, hunting and gathering.
More than three months after the photographs sparked aninternational media frenzy, Funai officials continue to witnesslogging activity in the region. "There is evidence. We seetimber floating down the river which originates in Peru," saidMeira.
Survival International, a group that campaigns for tribalpeoples' rights, said last week that the Peruvian governmenthad not lived up to its promise of publishing an investigationinto accusations of illegal logging.
"The Peruvian government must not be allowed to bury thisissue, or to turn their backs on the uncontacted tribes," saidSurvival's director, Stephen Corry.
The issue will be discussed at an international conferenceon native Indians in Georgetown, Guyana, later this month,Meira said.
Advancing loggers also threaten isolated tribes in Brazil'snorthern Mato Gross state and along the upper Xingu river inPara state, Meira said.
(Reporting by Raymond Colitt, editing by Ross Colvin)
