Relatives in this Woodland: The Battle to Defend an Isolated Rainforest Community

The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny glade deep in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed sounds coming closer through the thick woodland.

He realized that he stood surrounded, and froze.

“One person was standing, directing with an bow and arrow,” he states. “And somehow he detected of my presence and I began to flee.”

He ended up confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the small village of Nueva Oceania—was practically a neighbour to these itinerant people, who shun engagement with outsiders.

An updated document issued by a rights organization states exist at least 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” in existence worldwide. The group is considered to be the largest. The study states a significant portion of these communities could be wiped out within ten years if governments neglect to implement additional measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the most significant risks stem from timber harvesting, extraction or drilling for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are extremely susceptible to ordinary disease—therefore, it notes a danger is posed by contact with proselytizers and digital content creators looking for clicks.

Recently, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from locals.

This settlement is a fishing community of seven or eight households, sitting high on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the most accessible settlement by canoe.

This region is not recognised as a protected reserve for uncontacted groups, and timber firms function here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be heard continuously, and the community are observing their forest disrupted and destroyed.

Within the village, people say they are torn. They dread the projectiles but they also have strong respect for their “relatives” who live in the jungle and desire to protect them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we can't alter their way of life. For this reason we maintain our space,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of violence and the possibility that timber workers might introduce the tribe to sicknesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the village, the group made themselves known again. A young mother, a young mother with a two-year-old daughter, was in the jungle picking food when she detected them.

“We heard calls, sounds from individuals, numerous of them. Like there were a crowd yelling,” she shared with us.

It was the first instance she had come across the Mashco Piro and she escaped. An hour later, her mind was continually pounding from anxiety.

“As exist loggers and firms destroying the jungle they are fleeing, possibly out of fear and they end up in proximity to us,” she said. “We don't know what their response may be to us. That is the thing that scares me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the group while angling. One was wounded by an bow to the abdomen. He survived, but the second individual was located deceased days later with multiple injuries in his physique.

The administration has a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, making it illegal to start encounters with them.

The strategy began in the neighboring country following many years of advocacy by indigenous rights groups, who noted that early contact with remote tribes could lead to entire communities being eliminated by illness, destitution and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru made initial contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their people perished within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua people experienced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are very susceptible—epidemiologically, any interaction could spread diseases, and even the simplest ones may decimate them,” says a representative from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or intrusion could be extremely detrimental to their way of life and health as a community.”

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