Brothers in this Woodland: The Fight to Defend an Remote Amazon Community

Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small open space far in the Peruvian jungle when he detected movements drawing near through the dense forest.

He realized he was surrounded, and froze.

“A single individual positioned, aiming with an projectile,” he states. “And somehow he noticed I was here and I started to flee.”

He had come confronting the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a local to these itinerant individuals, who avoid interaction with strangers.

An updated report by a rights organisation indicates there are no fewer than 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” left globally. The group is thought to be the most numerous. The study claims half of these communities may be eliminated over the coming ten years unless authorities neglect to implement more measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the most significant threats come from logging, mining or operations for oil. Isolated tribes are extremely susceptible to common illness—as such, the report states a danger is caused by interaction with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of clicks.

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

The village is a angling hamlet of a handful of families, perched high on the shores of the local river in the center of the Peruvian rainforest, half a day from the closest village by boat.

This region is not classified as a safeguarded area for remote communities, and logging companies work here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the racket of logging machinery can be detected continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their woodland disturbed and ruined.

In Nueva Oceania, residents say they are divided. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have profound respect for their “kin” dwelling in the jungle and want to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we can't change their traditions. That's why we preserve our separation,” explains Tomas.

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

During a visit in the community, the group made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a two-year-old child, was in the jungle gathering food when she heard them.

“There were calls, sounds from people, a large number of them. As if there were a crowd shouting,” she shared with us.

This marked the initial occasion she had come across the group and she fled. Subsequently, her thoughts was persistently racing from anxiety.

“Since exist deforestation crews and firms cutting down the jungle they're running away, maybe because of dread and they end up close to us,” she explained. “We don't know how they will behave towards us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

Recently, two loggers were assaulted by the Mashco Piro while fishing. A single person was wounded by an projectile to the stomach. He survived, but the other person was located dead days later with nine arrow wounds in his frame.

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

The strategy began in the neighboring country following many years of lobbying by community representatives, who saw that early interaction with remote tribes resulted to whole populations being wiped out by disease, destitution and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru first encountered with the broader society, half of their people perished within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the same fate.

“Secluded communities are extremely susceptible—in terms of health, any exposure may introduce sicknesses, and even the simplest ones could decimate them,” explains an advocate from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or interference may be highly damaging to their life and health as a community.”

For those living nearby of {