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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small open space within in the Peruvian Amazon when he noticed movements coming closer through the dense forest.

He became aware that he had been surrounded, and halted.

“A single individual stood, aiming with an projectile,” he recalls. “And somehow he detected I was here and I commenced to escape.”

He found himself confronting members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a local to these nomadic individuals, who reject interaction with foreigners.

A new report by a advocacy organisation indicates exist no fewer than 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” in existence worldwide. This tribe is thought to be the most numerous. The study claims half of these groups could be eliminated over the coming ten years unless authorities neglect to implement more to protect them.

The report asserts the greatest threats stem from timber harvesting, extraction or operations for oil. Remote communities are exceptionally vulnerable to common sickness—consequently, the report notes a threat is caused by contact with proselytizers and social media influencers in pursuit of engagement.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from locals.

This settlement is a fishermen's community of several families, sitting atop on the shores of the local river deep within the of Peru rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the nearest village by watercraft.

This region is not designated as a protected zone for remote communities, and timber firms work here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the noise of industrial tools can be heard around the clock, and the community are witnessing their forest disturbed and destroyed.

In Nueva Oceania, people state they are divided. They fear the projectiles but they also have deep regard for their “kin” dwelling in the woodland and want to defend them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we must not modify their way of life. For this reason we keep our separation,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of aggression and the likelihood that deforestation crews might introduce the Mashco Piro to diseases they have no defense to.

While we were in the village, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia, a young mother with a two-year-old girl, was in the jungle collecting produce when she noticed them.

“We detected calls, shouts from others, a large number of them. As though there were a crowd yelling,” she informed us.

It was the initial occasion she had come across the tribe and she escaped. An hour later, her head was still throbbing from anxiety.

“Since there are deforestation crews and operations destroying the jungle they are escaping, maybe out of fear and they come close to us,” she stated. “We don't know how they might react to us. That's what terrifies me.”

Recently, two loggers were confronted by the group while angling. One man was wounded by an arrow to the stomach. He recovered, but the other man was found deceased days later with nine injuries in his frame.

The Peruvian government has a policy of avoiding interaction with remote tribes, establishing it as forbidden to initiate interactions with them.

The strategy began in the neighboring country after decades of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who observed that initial exposure with secluded communities lead to entire groups being wiped out by illness, hardship and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in Peru came into contact with the world outside, 50% of their people succumbed within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community faced the identical outcome.

“Remote tribes are extremely susceptible—from a disease perspective, any contact may spread sicknesses, and even the basic infections may wipe them out,” says an advocate from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or interference can be extremely detrimental to their way of life and survival as a community.”

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