Uncontacted communities in the Amazon live in some of the most inaccessible, ecologically healthy forests on the planet.
Their isolation is the result of historical events, particularly the violence and disease brought by the rubber boom and subsequent waves of resource extraction. Remaining apart from national societies has become a long-term choice that requires vast extensions of protected forest.
Journalists John Reid and Daniel Biasetto began writing about these communities together in 2024, covering the southern Amazon, where deforestation pressure is most intense, but where some communities are unexpectedly growing. The series now looks deeper into the heart of the Amazon.
They report on the border region between Peru and Brazil, where nomadic peoples face increasing risk of contact driven by logging and climate change. They also report on the lives of recently contacted peoples and the impact on those who contacted them.
In addition, Reid and Biasetto cover the efforts to verify the long list of unconfirmed populations of isolated peoples.
