Relatives within this Woodland: The Struggle to Defend an Secluded Rainforest Tribe

Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest glade deep in the of Peru jungle when he detected sounds drawing near through the lush forest.

It dawned on him he was encircled, and froze.

“One stood, aiming with an projectile,” he recalls. “Somehow he noticed that I was present and I began to run.”

He had come confronting members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbour to these nomadic individuals, who avoid contact with outsiders.

A recent document issued by a rights group states exist at least 196 of what it calls “remote communities” in existence globally. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the largest. The study claims half of these tribes may be decimated within ten years if governments don't do more measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the biggest risks stem from logging, mining or exploration for petroleum. Isolated tribes are highly susceptible to ordinary disease—consequently, the report notes a threat is caused by interaction with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators seeking engagement.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to residents.

The village is a fishing hamlet of seven or eight households, located atop on the banks of the local river in the center of the Peruvian rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible village by watercraft.

The territory is not recognised as a preserved reserve for remote communities, and timber firms function here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the racket of logging machinery can be detected day and night, and the tribe members are observing their jungle disturbed and destroyed.

Among the locals, residents say they are conflicted. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have strong respect for their “kin” residing in the jungle and want to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we must not modify their culture. That's why we preserve our distance,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of violence and the possibility that timber workers might expose the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the settlement, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. A young mother, a woman with a toddler girl, was in the woodland gathering produce when she detected them.

“We detected cries, cries from people, a large number of them. Like there were a large gathering yelling,” she informed us.

That was the initial occasion she had come across the Mashco Piro and she fled. Subsequently, her head was continually pounding from fear.

“Since exist loggers and companies cutting down the forest they are fleeing, maybe due to terror and they end up close to us,” she said. “It is unclear what their response may be to us. That's what terrifies me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the tribe while catching fish. One man was hit by an projectile to the abdomen. He survived, but the second individual was found lifeless subsequently with several puncture marks in his body.

Authorities in Peru follows a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, making it prohibited to initiate contact with them.

This approach began in the neighboring country following many years of advocacy by indigenous rights groups, who noted that initial interaction with secluded communities lead to entire communities being eliminated by sickness, poverty and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in Peru came into contact with the world outside, 50% of their community succumbed within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua people experienced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very susceptible—epidemiologically, any contact might transmit diseases, and including the basic infections may eliminate them,” states a representative from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any contact or disruption may be very harmful to their existence and health as a society.”

For local residents of {