Kin within the Jungle: The Struggle to Defend an Secluded Rainforest Group

The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small open space within in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed movements coming closer through the thick woodland.

It dawned on him he was encircled, and stood still.

“One person was standing, aiming using an arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he became aware I was here and I began to run.”

He ended up encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a neighbour to these itinerant tribe, who shun contact with foreigners.

A recent document from a human rights organisation indicates remain a minimum of 196 termed “isolated tribes” in existence in the world. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the most numerous. The report says half of these tribes could be decimated in the next decade unless authorities neglect to implement further to protect them.

It claims the biggest dangers come from logging, mining or drilling for petroleum. Remote communities are highly vulnerable to ordinary disease—therefore, the study states a threat is caused by exposure with religious missionaries and online personalities seeking clicks.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's community of seven or eight clans, sitting atop on the edges of the Tauhamanu River deep within the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the nearest village by canoe.

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

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the noise of heavy equipment can be heard around the clock, and the community are observing their forest disrupted and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, residents say they are torn. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they hold strong respect for their “relatives” dwelling in the jungle and wish to protect them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we must not alter their culture. That's why we keep our distance,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of violence and the possibility that loggers might introduce the community to illnesses they have no immunity to.

At the time in the settlement, the Mashco Piro made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a two-year-old child, was in the forest collecting produce when she heard them.

“We heard calls, shouts from people, numerous of them. As if there was a large gathering calling out,” she shared with us.

That was the first time she had come across the group and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her mind was continually throbbing from terror.

“Because there are loggers and companies destroying the forest they are escaping, maybe due to terror and they end up close to us,” she said. “It is unclear what their response may be with us. That's what scares me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the Mashco Piro while angling. One was hit by an projectile to the stomach. He recovered, but the other person was located lifeless subsequently with several puncture marks in his body.

The administration follows a policy of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, making it forbidden to commence contact with them.

The policy was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who observed that first contact with isolated people resulted to whole populations being decimated by disease, hardship and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country first encountered with the world outside, half of their population died within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are very susceptible—epidemiologically, any contact may transmit diseases, and even the most common illnesses could decimate them,” states a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or intrusion can be highly damaging to their existence and survival as a group.”

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