🔗 Share this article

Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small open space far in the Peruvian jungle when he heard sounds coming closer through the thick woodland.

It dawned on him that he stood encircled, and halted.

“A single individual positioned, directing using an bow and arrow,” he states. “And somehow he detected of my presence and I started to flee.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—was practically a neighbor to these itinerant individuals, who avoid interaction with strangers.

A recent report issued by a advocacy organisation claims there are no fewer than 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” in existence globally. The group is believed to be the most numerous. The report says half of these communities could be eliminated within ten years unless authorities fail to take additional to protect them.

It argues the biggest dangers stem from deforestation, digging or drilling for crude. Remote communities are highly susceptible to basic disease—consequently, the report notes a risk is posed by exposure with religious missionaries and online personalities in pursuit of clicks.

In recent times, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to residents.

This settlement is a fishing village of several clans, sitting atop on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian rainforest, 10 hours from the most accessible town by canoe.

This region is not recognised as a protected area for remote communities, and logging companies function here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be heard day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are seeing their forest disturbed and ruined.

In Nueva Oceania, inhabitants say they are torn. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess strong respect for their “brothers” who live in the woodland and desire to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we can't alter their way of life. For this reason we keep our space,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of conflict and the likelihood that loggers might subject the community to diseases they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the settlement, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a young daughter, was in the woodland gathering produce when she detected them.

“There were shouting, shouts from others, numerous of them. As if there were a crowd yelling,” she informed us.

This marked the first instance she had met the group and she escaped. Subsequently, her mind was continually throbbing from terror.

“As operate loggers and operations cutting down the forest they are escaping, maybe due to terror and they arrive close to us,” she stated. “It is unclear how they might react with us. That's what scares me.”

Two years ago, two loggers were confronted by the group while catching fish. A single person was hit by an bow to the gut. He recovered, but the second individual was discovered lifeless days later with nine arrow wounds in his frame.

The Peruvian government maintains a approach of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to initiate interactions with them.

The strategy originated in the neighboring country following many years of campaigning by community representatives, who saw that initial contact with secluded communities could lead to whole populations being decimated by sickness, destitution and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country first encountered with the world outside, half of their people perished within a short period. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people suffered the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are extremely susceptible—in terms of health, any contact could spread illnesses, and even the most common illnesses might eliminate them,” explains a representative from a tribal support group. “Culturally too, any contact or intrusion could be highly damaging to their life and survival as a group.”

For local residents of {