Brothers in this Forest: The Fight to Protect an Secluded Rainforest Tribe

The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest open space far in the of Peru Amazon when he detected footsteps approaching through the dense woodland.

It dawned on him that he stood hemmed in, and froze.

“A single individual was standing, directing using an projectile,” he states. “Unexpectedly he became aware of my presence and I started to run.”

He had come encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a neighbor to these wandering individuals, who shun engagement with foreigners.

A recent study issued by a rights organisation claims exist no fewer than 196 described as “remote communities” remaining worldwide. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the most numerous. The report says 50% of these tribes might be decimated over the coming ten years unless authorities neglect to implement more measures to safeguard them.

It claims the most significant dangers come from timber harvesting, mining or exploration for crude. Remote communities are extremely at risk to basic sickness—consequently, the study says a risk is posed by exposure with religious missionaries and online personalities looking for clicks.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to inhabitants.

The village is a angling village of several families, perched high on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the nearest settlement by boat.

The territory is not classified as a protected zone for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations operate here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the noise of logging machinery can be detected around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their jungle disrupted and ruined.

Within the village, people say they are torn. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have deep regard for their “brothers” residing in the forest and want to protect them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we must not change their culture. This is why we preserve our separation,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the tribe's survival, the threat of conflict and the chance that loggers might subject the community to diseases they have no resistance to.

At the time in the settlement, the group appeared again. A young mother, a young mother with a toddler child, was in the forest gathering fruit when she detected them.

“There were calls, sounds from people, numerous of them. Like it was a whole group shouting,” she shared with us.

That was the first time she had met the group and she ran. After sixty minutes, her head was still racing from anxiety.

“Because operate deforestation crews and operations destroying the jungle they're running away, maybe due to terror and they end up near us,” she explained. “It is unclear how they might react towards us. This is what terrifies me.”

In 2022, two individuals were assaulted by the Mashco Piro while catching fish. A single person was hit by an bow to the gut. He lived, but the other person was located dead after several days with nine injuries in his frame.

Authorities in Peru follows a strategy of avoiding interaction with remote tribes, rendering it illegal to initiate encounters with them.

This approach originated in Brazil after decades of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that first contact with isolated people could lead to entire communities being eliminated by illness, destitution and malnutrition.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country came into contact with the broader society, half of their community perished within a few years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are highly vulnerable—in terms of health, any interaction may transmit sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses may decimate them,” states Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption can be extremely detrimental to their way of life and well-being as a society.”

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