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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest clearing within in the of Peru jungle when he noticed movements drawing near through the dense woodland.

It dawned on him he was hemmed in, and halted.

“One positioned, aiming using an arrow,” he states. “And somehow he became aware of my presence and I commenced to run.”

He had come face to face members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a neighbor to these nomadic people, who shun interaction with foreigners.

A new document from a advocacy organization indicates there are no fewer than 196 of what it calls “remote communities” left globally. This tribe is believed to be the most numerous. The study says 50% of these communities might be decimated over the coming ten years if governments don't do additional actions to defend them.

It argues the biggest dangers come from timber harvesting, extraction or exploration for crude. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally at risk to ordinary illness—consequently, the report says a risk is presented by contact with religious missionaries and social media influencers seeking clicks.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's community of several households, located atop on the banks of the Tauhamanu River deep within the of Peru rainforest, half a day from the closest village by canoe.

The territory is not classified as a protected zone for uncontacted groups, and timber firms work here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the noise of industrial tools can be detected continuously, and the tribe members are observing their forest disrupted and ruined.

Within the village, residents report they are torn. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold profound respect for their “relatives” residing in the forest and wish to protect them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we must not alter their way of life. This is why we keep our separation,” explains Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of violence and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the community to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the village, the tribe made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a toddler girl, was in the woodland gathering fruit when she detected them.

“We detected cries, sounds from individuals, a large number of them. As if there was a whole group yelling,” she informed us.

It was the first time she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she escaped. An hour later, her head was persistently pounding from terror.

“Because there are loggers and firms cutting down the woodland they're running away, maybe due to terror and they arrive close to us,” she stated. “It is unclear what their response may be towards us. This is what frightens me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the tribe while catching fish. One was hit by an bow to the stomach. He lived, but the other man was discovered deceased subsequently with several puncture marks in his frame.

The Peruvian government follows a strategy of non-contact with remote tribes, making it illegal to initiate interactions with them.

The strategy was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of campaigning by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that early interaction with remote tribes resulted to entire communities being wiped out by disease, destitution and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in Peru made initial contact with the broader society, half of their community perished within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe faced the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are very susceptible—epidemiologically, any contact could introduce sicknesses, and including the most common illnesses might wipe them out,” states an advocate from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any contact or disruption can be highly damaging to their existence and survival as a society.”

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