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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest glade within in the Peruvian Amazon when he heard footsteps drawing near through the lush jungle.

He realized he was surrounded, and stood still.

“A single individual stood, pointing using an arrow,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he noticed that I was present and I started to escape.”

He found himself face to face members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbour to these nomadic tribe, who reject contact with foreigners.

An updated document issued by a rights organization claims remain no fewer than 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” left globally. This tribe is thought to be the biggest. It says 50% of these tribes may be decimated within ten years should administrations fail to take more measures to safeguard them.

It claims the biggest risks are from logging, extraction or operations for oil. Uncontacted groups are highly vulnerable to basic disease—as such, it notes a danger is caused by exposure with proselytizers and digital content creators seeking engagement.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, according to inhabitants.

The village is a fishermen's community of a handful of families, sitting atop on the edges of the local river deep within the of Peru Amazon, half a day from the closest village by watercraft.

The territory is not classified as a preserved reserve for remote communities, and logging companies function here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the noise of heavy equipment can be detected continuously, and the tribe members are witnessing their jungle disrupted and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants state they are divided. They dread the projectiles but they also have strong regard for their “kin” residing in the forest and want to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live according to their traditions, we can't modify their culture. For this reason we keep our space,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the community's way of life, the danger of conflict and the likelihood that deforestation crews might introduce the tribe to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the settlement, the Mashco Piro appeared again. A young mother, a resident with a toddler daughter, was in the forest gathering food when she detected them.

“There were cries, cries from others, numerous of them. Like there was a whole group shouting,” she told us.

That was the first instance she had met the group and she fled. An hour later, her mind was persistently pounding from anxiety.

“Since exist deforestation crews and firms destroying the woodland they're running away, maybe out of fear and they arrive near us,” she stated. “We are uncertain what their response may be with us. That's what frightens me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the group while catching fish. A single person was wounded by an bow to the stomach. He survived, but the second individual was found dead subsequently with several arrow wounds in his physique.

The Peruvian government follows a approach of non-contact with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to start interactions with them.

The policy was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that early exposure with isolated people could lead to entire communities being eliminated by sickness, hardship and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru came into contact with the broader society, half of their population succumbed within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very susceptible—epidemiologically, any exposure could spread sicknesses, and even the simplest ones could decimate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “In cultural terms, any interaction or interference could be very harmful to their way of life and survival as a community.”

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