Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest clearing within in the Peruvian rainforest when he noticed sounds coming closer through the lush forest.
He became aware he was hemmed in, and stood still.
“One person stood, directing with an bow and arrow,” he states. “And somehow he became aware that I was present and I began to escape.”
He had come face to face the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—residing in the small community of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a neighbour to these itinerant tribe, who reject interaction with foreigners.
A new study from a human rights organization indicates there are no fewer than 196 termed “remote communities” in existence in the world. The group is thought to be the largest. The report claims half of these groups could be wiped out over the coming ten years should administrations fail to take further to protect them.
It argues the most significant dangers are from timber harvesting, digging or drilling for crude. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally susceptible to ordinary disease—consequently, the report says a risk is posed by contact with evangelical missionaries and online personalities seeking engagement.
Lately, members of the tribe have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, according to inhabitants.
This settlement is a fishing hamlet of several clans, located high on the banks of the local river in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, 10 hours from the nearest settlement by canoe.
The territory is not recognised as a preserved area for isolated tribes, and timber firms function here.
According to Tomas that, sometimes, the noise of heavy equipment can be detected around the clock, and the tribe members are seeing their forest disrupted and devastated.
Among the locals, residents report they are torn. They are afraid of the projectiles but they also possess profound admiration for their “relatives” dwelling in the forest and wish to protect them.
“Allow them to live as they live, we are unable to change their way of life. That's why we keep our space,” says Tomas.
Residents in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the tribe's survival, the risk of violence and the possibility that timber workers might expose the tribe to diseases they have no immunity to.
At the time in the community, the Mashco Piro appeared again. A young mother, a woman with a toddler girl, was in the forest gathering produce when she heard them.
“We heard calls, sounds from individuals, numerous of them. As if it was a whole group yelling,” she shared with us.
That was the first instance she had come across the Mashco Piro and she ran. An hour later, her mind was continually throbbing from anxiety.
“Since operate timber workers and firms cutting down the jungle they are fleeing, possibly because of dread and they end up near us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they might react towards us. That is the thing that scares me.”
In 2022, two loggers were assaulted by the group while catching fish. One man was hit by an arrow to the gut. He recovered, but the other man was found dead subsequently with several arrow wounds in his frame.
Authorities in Peru maintains a policy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, establishing it as forbidden to start interactions with them.
The policy was first adopted in the neighboring country after decades of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that first interaction with remote tribes resulted to entire groups being eliminated by sickness, hardship and hunger.
In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru made initial contact with the world outside, 50% of their population perished within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the identical outcome.
“Secluded communities are very vulnerable—from a disease perspective, any interaction may introduce diseases, and including the simplest ones might eliminate them,” says a representative from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any contact or intrusion could be very harmful to their life and survival as a group.”
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