🔗 Share this article

Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest clearing deep in the of Peru rainforest when he detected movements approaching through the dense forest.

He realized that he stood encircled, and froze.

“One stood, directing using an projectile,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he noticed of my presence and I started to escape.”

He ended up face to face the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—was virtually a neighbor to these itinerant people, who reject contact with outsiders.

A recent document by a rights organization claims remain no fewer than 196 described as “uncontacted groups” remaining in the world. This tribe is believed to be the largest. It states half of these groups could be wiped out within ten years unless authorities don't do further measures to safeguard them.

It argues the biggest dangers are from logging, digging or exploration for oil. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally vulnerable to ordinary sickness—therefore, it says a danger is posed by contact with proselytizers and digital content creators seeking clicks.

Recently, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's hamlet of a handful of clans, sitting atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the most accessible town by canoe.

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

According to Tomas that, at times, the racket of heavy equipment can be detected continuously, and the community are seeing their jungle disrupted and destroyed.

Among the locals, residents say they are torn. They fear the projectiles but they hold deep admiration for their “brothers” dwelling in the forest and wish to safeguard them.

“Let them live in their own way, we must not change their traditions. That's why we keep our separation,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the tribe's survival, the danger of aggression and the chance that loggers might subject the tribe to diseases they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the settlement, the group made their presence felt again. A young mother, a resident with a young daughter, was in the jungle collecting fruit when she detected them.

“We heard calls, sounds from individuals, numerous of them. As though it was a crowd calling out,” she told us.

That was the first instance she had met the tribe and she escaped. An hour later, her mind was still racing from anxiety.

“Because there are timber workers and operations clearing the forest they're running away, possibly out of fear and they arrive near us,” she said. “We are uncertain what their response may be towards us. This is what terrifies me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the tribe while catching fish. One man was wounded by an bow to the gut. He survived, but the other person was found deceased after several days with multiple injuries in his body.

Authorities in Peru has a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as prohibited to commence interactions with them.

The strategy originated in Brazil following many years of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that initial exposure with secluded communities lead to entire communities being decimated by illness, poverty and hunger.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru made initial contact with the broader society, 50% of their population died within a few years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are extremely vulnerable—in terms of health, any exposure may transmit illnesses, and even the simplest ones might decimate them,” says an advocate from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or intrusion may be extremely detrimental to their way of life and well-being as a society.”

For the neighbours of {