Relatives within this Woodland: This Fight to Safeguard an Remote Rainforest Tribe

A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small clearing within in the of Peru jungle when he heard footsteps approaching through the thick woodland.

He realized he was hemmed in, and halted.

“One was standing, aiming with an arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he became aware I was here and I began to escape.”

He had come encountering members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbor to these nomadic people, who shun interaction with foreigners.

An updated document by a rights group claims there are at least 196 termed “isolated tribes” in existence worldwide. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the biggest. The study claims half of these communities might be eliminated within ten years should administrations neglect to implement more measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the greatest threats come from logging, extraction or drilling for crude. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to common illness—consequently, the study notes a danger is presented by contact with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators seeking attention.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to locals.

Nueva Oceania is a angling hamlet of seven or eight households, sitting high on the edges of the local river in the heart of the of Peru jungle, half a day from the most accessible settlement by boat.

The territory is not designated as a protected area for isolated tribes, and timber firms work here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the noise of industrial tools can be detected day and night, and the tribe members are observing their jungle damaged and ruined.

Among the locals, inhabitants say they are conflicted. They fear the projectiles but they also have profound respect for their “kin” who live in the woodland and want to defend them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we are unable to change their traditions. That's why we keep our space,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the community's way of life, the risk of conflict and the likelihood that timber workers might expose the community to diseases they have no immunity to.

At the time in the settlement, the Mashco Piro appeared again. Letitia, a resident with a young girl, was in the jungle picking food when she detected them.

“There were calls, shouts from people, many of them. Like there was a crowd calling out,” she told us.

That was the first instance she had met the tribe and she fled. An hour later, her mind was persistently pounding from anxiety.

“Since operate loggers and firms cutting down the jungle they're running away, possibly due to terror and they arrive close to us,” she stated. “It is unclear how they will behave with us. That's what scares me.”

Two years ago, two loggers were assaulted by the group while catching fish. A single person was struck by an bow to the gut. He recovered, but the other person was discovered deceased days later with several arrow wounds in his physique.

Authorities in Peru maintains a strategy of non-contact with isolated people, rendering it prohibited to start encounters with them.

This approach was first adopted in Brazil following many years of lobbying by community representatives, who saw that initial interaction with secluded communities could lead to whole populations being eliminated by disease, poverty and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in the country first encountered with the world outside, half of their community succumbed within a few years. A decade later, the Muruhanua people experienced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly vulnerable—epidemiologically, any contact may introduce diseases, and including the most common illnesses may wipe them out,” says Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any exposure or interference can be very harmful to their way of life and well-being as a society.”

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