🔗 Share this article

A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny glade deep in the of Peru jungle when he heard movements drawing near through the dense woodland.

He realized he was surrounded, and halted.

“One positioned, directing using an arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he detected of my presence and I began to flee.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—residing in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—was virtually a neighbour to these nomadic tribe, who reject interaction with strangers.

A recent report issued by a rights organisation states remain a minimum of 196 of what it calls “remote communities” left worldwide. The group is thought to be the largest. The report states a significant portion of these communities could be decimated within ten years should administrations don't do further to protect them.

The report asserts the most significant risks come from timber harvesting, extraction or exploration for crude. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally vulnerable to basic illness—as such, the study notes a danger is presented by exposure with religious missionaries and online personalities in pursuit of attention.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a angling hamlet of a handful of families, perched elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the of Peru jungle, a ten-hour journey from the closest town by canoe.

The territory is not recognised as a protected area for remote communities, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the racket of industrial tools can be detected day and night, and the community are observing their woodland disrupted and destroyed.

Among the locals, inhabitants state they are torn. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess strong regard for their “brothers” residing in the jungle and want to defend them.

“Let them live as they live, we are unable to change their culture. This is why we preserve our space,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the tribe's survival, the threat of conflict and the chance that timber workers might introduce the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the community, the group made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a two-year-old girl, was in the forest collecting fruit when she heard them.

“There were shouting, shouts from others, a large number of them. As though it was a crowd shouting,” she told us.

This marked the first instance she had come across the tribe and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her thoughts was persistently pounding from anxiety.

“Because there are deforestation crews and firms clearing the jungle they're running away, perhaps due to terror and they come close to us,” she explained. “We are uncertain what their response may be with us. That's what scares me.”

In 2022, two loggers were attacked by the group while fishing. One man was struck by an arrow to the gut. He survived, but the other person was discovered dead days later with several injuries in his body.

The administration has a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, making it forbidden to commence contact with them.

The policy originated in the neighboring country after decades of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that early contact with remote tribes could lead to entire groups being eliminated by illness, poverty and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the broader society, 50% of their community died within a short period. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very vulnerable—in terms of health, any exposure could spread illnesses, and even the most common illnesses may decimate them,” explains an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or disruption could be very harmful to their life and survival as a community.”

For the neighbours of {