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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny clearing deep in the of Peru jungle when he noticed movements coming closer through the thick forest.

He realized that he stood encircled, and froze.

“One person stood, pointing using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he detected that I was present and I started to run.”

He had come encountering members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbour to these wandering people, who shun contact with strangers.

A recent study issued by a human rights group claims exist at least 196 described as “remote communities” remaining worldwide. This tribe is considered to be the largest. It claims half of these tribes could be wiped out in the next decade unless authorities fail to take further measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the most significant threats are from logging, digging or exploration for crude. Isolated tribes are extremely vulnerable to ordinary illness—consequently, the report states a risk is caused by contact with proselytizers and social media influencers looking for clicks.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, based on accounts from residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's village of a handful of clans, sitting high on the shores of the local river deep within the of Peru jungle, a ten-hour journey from the nearest town by boat.

The territory is not classified as a safeguarded zone for isolated tribes, and logging companies function here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the sound of heavy equipment can be heard day and night, and the tribe members are witnessing their woodland disturbed and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, people state they are torn. They are afraid of the projectiles but they also have deep admiration for their “kin” who live in the forest and wish to protect them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we can't change their traditions. That's why we preserve our space,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of conflict and the likelihood that loggers might expose the tribe to illnesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the community, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a young daughter, was in the jungle gathering food when she heard them.

“We heard calls, sounds from people, many of them. As if it was a large gathering shouting,” she informed us.

This marked the first time she had come across the group and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her head was still throbbing from fear.

“Since operate loggers and firms cutting down the woodland they're running away, perhaps because of dread and they arrive close to us,” she explained. “We don't know what their response may be to us. This is what terrifies me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the tribe while angling. One was struck by an arrow to the gut. He recovered, but the second individual was found deceased after several days with several puncture marks in his body.

The Peruvian government maintains a strategy of no engagement with secluded communities, making it illegal to initiate encounters with them.

The strategy began in a nearby nation after decades of campaigning by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that initial contact with remote tribes resulted to entire communities being wiped out by illness, hardship and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru came into contact with the outside world, 50% of their people perished within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people suffered the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very vulnerable—epidemiologically, any interaction may spread sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses may wipe them out,” states an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption could be very harmful to their existence and survival as a community.”

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