🔗 Share this article

The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest glade far in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed sounds coming closer through the lush jungle.

He became aware he was hemmed in, and halted.

“A single individual was standing, aiming with an arrow,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he detected I was here and I commenced to escape.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the small settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a local to these nomadic tribe, who avoid contact with foreigners.

An updated document issued by a rights group indicates there are no fewer than 196 described as “remote communities” remaining in the world. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the largest. The report claims 50% of these groups may be wiped out over the coming ten years unless authorities neglect to implement further to protect them.

It argues the greatest risks come from deforestation, extraction or operations for crude. Isolated tribes are highly susceptible to basic illness—consequently, the report notes a danger is presented by contact with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of engagement.

Lately, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's hamlet of a handful of clans, located atop on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the of Peru Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible town by watercraft.

The area is not designated as a preserved zone for remote communities, and timber firms function here.

Tomas says that, at times, the sound of logging machinery can be detected day and night, and the tribe members are observing their forest damaged and ruined.

Within the village, inhabitants state they are conflicted. They fear the tribal weapons but they also possess deep respect for their “relatives” residing in the forest and desire to defend them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we must not alter their culture. This is why we keep our separation,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the community's way of life, the risk of conflict and the likelihood that timber workers might introduce the community to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the village, the tribe made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a young child, was in the forest gathering food when she noticed them.

“We detected calls, cries from people, many of them. Like there was a crowd yelling,” she shared with us.

This marked the initial occasion she had encountered the tribe and she ran. Subsequently, her thoughts was continually racing from fear.

“As there are deforestation crews and firms clearing the forest they're running away, perhaps due to terror and they end up near us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. That is the thing that scares me.”

In 2022, two loggers were attacked by the tribe while angling. One was hit by an bow to the stomach. He survived, but the other person was discovered deceased days later with several injuries in his physique.

The Peruvian government has a strategy of non-contact with isolated people, establishing it as prohibited to initiate interactions with them.

This approach was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of advocacy by community representatives, who noted that early interaction with remote tribes resulted to entire groups being wiped out by illness, hardship and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country made initial contact with the broader society, half of their community died within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community faced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely susceptible—from a disease perspective, any exposure may introduce diseases, and including the most common illnesses could decimate them,” explains a representative from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any interaction or intrusion could be highly damaging to their existence and health as a group.”

For those living nearby of {