🔗 Share this article

Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a tiny glade deep in the Peruvian Amazon when he noticed movements approaching through the lush forest.

It dawned on him he was surrounded, and stood still.

“One positioned, directing with an arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he became aware of my presence and I started to flee.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbor to these wandering tribe, who shun engagement with strangers.

A new document by a advocacy organisation states there are no fewer than 196 of what it calls “remote communities” remaining in the world. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the biggest. The report claims 50% of these groups may be decimated in the next decade unless authorities don't do more measures to safeguard them.

It argues the most significant threats are from timber harvesting, extraction or exploration for crude. Isolated tribes are highly vulnerable to common illness—as such, the study says a risk is posed by exposure with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of attention.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by residents.

The village is a fishermen's village of seven or eight clans, located elevated on the banks of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, a ten-hour journey from the closest settlement by boat.

This region is not designated as a protected area for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations work here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be detected day and night, and the community are seeing their forest disrupted and ruined.

Among the locals, inhabitants state they are conflicted. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have deep regard for their “kin” residing in the woodland and desire to defend them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we are unable to modify their culture. For this reason we preserve our distance,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the community's way of life, the risk of violence and the chance that deforestation crews might expose the tribe to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the settlement, the group made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a young girl, was in the forest collecting fruit when she detected them.

“We heard cries, sounds from people, many of them. Like there was a large gathering yelling,” she shared with us.

This marked the first instance she had encountered the group and she ran. Subsequently, her head was still pounding from anxiety.

“Since exist timber workers and companies destroying the forest they're running away, possibly because of dread and they arrive close to us,” she explained. “We are uncertain what their response may be towards us. That's what terrifies me.”

In 2022, two individuals were attacked by the group while fishing. A single person was hit by an projectile to the gut. He recovered, but the second individual was found dead after several days with nine puncture marks in his frame.

The Peruvian government maintains a approach of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, establishing it as forbidden to start contact with them.

The policy began in Brazil subsequent to prolonged of lobbying by community representatives, who saw that first interaction with remote tribes lead to entire communities being eliminated by illness, destitution and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in Peru made initial contact with the outside world, half of their people succumbed within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the similar destiny.

“Secluded communities are very vulnerable—in terms of health, any interaction may introduce diseases, and even the basic infections could wipe them out,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or interference may be very harmful to their life and survival as a community.”

For those living nearby of {