Brazil confirms existence of 'lost Amazon tribe' discovered via satellite as another goes missing after drug gang attack

Government officials in Brazil have confirmed the existence of an uncontacted population in the Amazon rainforest after the tribe of 200 was spotted by satellite.

Three large clearings were identified in a southwestern area near the Peruvian border this week, but the tribe's existence was only verified after airplane expeditions in April gathered more data.

Local government agency the National Indian Foundation uses the aircraft to avoid disrupting isolated groups.

The news comes as another uncontacted tribe went 'missing' after drug traffickers overran Brazilian guards posted to protect its lands.

No trace of the Indian tribe has been found after heavily-armed men destroyed a guard post in western Brazil around 32 miles from the Peruvian border.

Workers from FUNAI, the government bureau of Indian affairs, found a broken arrow in one of the men's backpacks, raising fears for the tribe's safety.

Brazil has a policy of not contacting such tribes but working to prevent the invasion of their land to preserve their autonomy.

The government agency estimates 68 isolated populations live in the Amazon.

The confirmed tribe live in four large, straw-roofed buildings and grow corn, bananas, peanuts and other crops. 

According to Funai, preliminary observation indicates the population likely belongs to the pano language group, which extends from the Brazilian Amazon into the Peruvian and Bolivian jungle.

The community is near the border with Peru in the massive Vale do Javari reservation, which is nearly the size of Portugal and is home to at least 14 uncontacted tribes.

Funai coordinator for Vale do Javari, Fabricio Amorim, said: 'The work of identifying and protecting isolated groups is part of Brazilian public policy.

'To confirm something like this takes years of methodical work.'

The region has a constellation of uncontacted peoples considered the largest in the world, said Amorim. 

In addition to the 14 known groups, Funai has identified through satellite images or land excursions up to eight more tribes.

That adds up to a population of about 2,000 individuals in the reservation, Amorim said.

Their culture, and even their survival, is threatened by illegal fishing, hunting, logging and mining in the area, along with deforestation by farmers, missionary activity and drug trafficking along Brazil's borders, Amorim said.

Oil exploration in the Peruvian Amazon could also destabilise the region, he said.

In spite of the threats, most of Brazil's indigenous groups maintain their languages and traditions.

Many have long fought for control of land in which they've traditionally lived on. 

They won legal rights to reclaim that territory in Brazil's 1988 constitution, which declared that all indigenous ancestral lands be demarcated and turned over to tribes within five years.

So far, 11 per cent of Brazilian territory and nearly 22 per cent of the Amazon has been turned over to such groups.

Protect the amazon

The Amazon rainforest is home to more than one in ten of all animal species on Earth. The largest water basin in the world, it produces one-fifth of all the free-flowing fresh water on our planet. The health of the Amazon is directly linked to the health of our global environment, and every day more is learned about the countless medicines and foods hidden within its depths. Yet the Amazon is under great threat from logging, road development and agriculture. The WWF predicts that if deforestation continues, 55 percent of the Amazon will be distroyed

• Rainforests are forests that experience a high level of rainfall.
• Scientists believe that there may be millions of plant and insect species in rainforests that have yet to be discovered.
• Over 25% of natural medicines have been discovered in rainforests.
• Rainforests used to cover 14% of the Earth’s surface but due to deforestation now only cover around 6%.
• A wide variety of animals live in rainforests, including birds, snakes, insects, jaguars, cougars, chameleons, turtles, frogs, and many more.
• There are two types of rainforest, temperate and tropical.
• Temperate rainforests lie in the temperate zones (between the tropics and the polar circles) of the globe. They are found in a few regions scattered around the world such as western North America, south-eastern Australia and New Zealand.
• Tropical rainforests lie in the tropics (around 28 degrees north or south of the equator). They are found in many areas near the equator such as Asia, Africa, Central America and the Pacific Islands.
• The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world. Read more Amazon rainforest facts.
• A number of tribes in areas such as central Africa and Brazil still live in rainforests, having no contact with the outside world.
• The words 'jungle' and 'rainforest' are sometimes used to mean the same thing but there are some differences, read about them with our fun jungle facts for kids.