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Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a small clearing far in the Peruvian Amazon when he heard sounds approaching through the lush jungle.

He realized he was hemmed in, and halted.

“One stood, directing using an projectile,” he recalls. “Somehow he noticed of my presence and I began to flee.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a neighbor to these wandering tribe, who shun interaction with foreigners.

An updated document by a human rights organisation claims exist at least 196 of what it calls “remote communities” left worldwide. The group is believed to be the most numerous. The study states half of these communities may be wiped out within ten years unless authorities don't do further to protect them.

It claims the biggest threats stem from timber harvesting, digging or exploration for oil. Isolated tribes are extremely at risk to ordinary illness—therefore, the report says a risk is posed by exposure with religious missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of engagement.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by locals.

Nueva Oceania is a angling hamlet of a handful of families, sitting elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the closest village by watercraft.

The area is not recognised as a preserved zone for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations operate here.

Tomas says that, at times, the sound of logging machinery can be detected around the clock, and the tribe members are seeing their jungle damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, people state they are divided. They dread the projectiles but they also have strong regard for their “brothers” dwelling in the woodland and want to defend them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we can't modify their culture. For this reason we maintain our separation,” explains Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of aggression and the possibility that timber workers might subject the community to diseases they have no immunity to.

While we were in the community, the group appeared again. Letitia, a young mother with a two-year-old child, was in the jungle gathering food when she noticed them.

“We heard calls, shouts from people, numerous of them. As though there were a whole group yelling,” she informed us.

This marked the first instance she had met the group and she fled. After sixty minutes, her mind was still throbbing from fear.

“Since there are loggers and companies destroying the woodland they're running away, possibly out of fear and they come near us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they might react towards us. This is what terrifies me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the group while catching fish. One was hit by an bow to the stomach. He recovered, but the other man was located dead after several days with several injuries in his physique.

The administration maintains a policy of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, establishing it as forbidden to commence interactions with them.

This approach originated in the neighboring country following many years of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that first exposure with remote tribes could lead to entire communities being eliminated by sickness, hardship and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country first encountered with the world outside, a significant portion of their people perished within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the identical outcome.

“Remote tribes are very susceptible—in terms of health, any contact may introduce diseases, and even the simplest ones could eliminate them,” explains a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any interaction or interference may be extremely detrimental to their existence and well-being as a community.”

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