Brothers throughout the Forest: This Fight to Safeguard an Remote Rainforest Group

A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest glade far in the Peruvian jungle when he heard movements drawing near through the lush jungle.

He became aware that he had been hemmed in, and halted.

“One person positioned, aiming using an projectile,” he recalls. “Somehow he detected I was here and I began to escape.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbor to these itinerant tribe, who avoid interaction with strangers.

An updated study by a rights group states remain a minimum of 196 described as “isolated tribes” remaining worldwide. The group is considered to be the biggest. The study claims 50% of these communities could be wiped out over the coming ten years unless authorities neglect to implement additional measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the most significant threats are from logging, extraction or operations for oil. Remote communities are extremely susceptible to basic illness—consequently, the study states a danger is posed by exposure with proselytizers and online personalities looking for clicks.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by locals.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's community of a handful of families, sitting high on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the most accessible village by canoe.

The area is not recognised as a protected area for uncontacted groups, and logging companies function here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the racket of logging machinery can be heard around the clock, and the tribe members are witnessing their jungle disturbed and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants say they are conflicted. They fear the projectiles but they also possess deep admiration for their “kin” who live in the jungle and want to safeguard them.

“Let them live as they live, we must not modify their traditions. That's why we maintain our space,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the community's way of life, the risk of conflict and the possibility that loggers might expose the tribe to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

While we were in the village, the group made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a toddler daughter, was in the forest collecting produce when she noticed them.

“We heard calls, cries from individuals, many of them. As if there were a whole group yelling,” she shared with us.

It was the initial occasion she had come across the tribe and she ran. An hour later, her head was persistently pounding from fear.

“Since exist deforestation crews and companies cutting down the woodland they are fleeing, possibly because of dread and they arrive in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they might react to us. This is what terrifies me.”

Recently, two loggers were assaulted by the Mashco Piro while fishing. One was wounded by an projectile to the abdomen. He recovered, but the second individual was found lifeless after several days with nine puncture marks in his frame.

The administration has a policy of no engagement with isolated people, rendering it illegal to start interactions with them.

The strategy began in the neighboring country after decades of advocacy by community representatives, who observed that initial interaction with secluded communities lead to whole populations being wiped out by illness, hardship and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country made initial contact with the broader society, a significant portion of their population succumbed within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are extremely vulnerable—epidemiologically, any contact could transmit illnesses, and even the simplest ones might decimate them,” says Issrail Aquisse from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or intrusion may be highly damaging to their life and survival as a community.”

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