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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny open space within in the of Peru jungle when he detected sounds approaching through the lush forest.

He realized that he stood encircled, and stood still.

“One stood, directing using an projectile,” he remembers. “And somehow he noticed that I was present and I started to escape.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a neighbor to these itinerant tribe, who shun engagement with outsiders.

A recent report from a advocacy organization states there are no fewer than 196 described as “isolated tribes” left globally. This tribe is considered to be the largest. The report states 50% of these communities may be eliminated within ten years should administrations fail to take additional measures to safeguard them.

It claims the most significant threats stem from deforestation, digging or exploration for crude. Isolated tribes are highly vulnerable to ordinary sickness—therefore, it says a threat is posed by contact with evangelical missionaries and online personalities looking for engagement.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by inhabitants.

This settlement is a fishermen's village of a handful of families, located atop on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the nearest village by watercraft.

This region is not designated as a protected zone for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations work here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the racket of heavy equipment can be heard day and night, and the tribe members are witnessing their forest disrupted and ruined.

Within the village, people say they are torn. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have strong admiration for their “brothers” who live in the forest and want to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we can't modify their traditions. That's why we keep our separation,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of violence and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the community to illnesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the community, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia, a young mother with a two-year-old daughter, was in the woodland collecting food when she heard them.

“We detected calls, shouts from others, many of them. As if it was a large gathering yelling,” she shared with us.

It was the initial occasion she had come across the group and she ran. Subsequently, her thoughts was still racing from terror.

“Because operate timber workers and operations clearing the woodland they are fleeing, possibly out of fear and they arrive near us,” she said. “It is unclear how they might react towards us. That's what frightens me.”

In 2022, two individuals were confronted by the group while fishing. One man was wounded by an bow to the stomach. He lived, but the second individual was found dead after several days with several arrow wounds in his body.

The administration follows a approach of non-contact with secluded communities, establishing it as illegal to start contact with them.

The strategy was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who saw that early exposure with remote tribes could lead to whole populations being eliminated by disease, destitution and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru came into contact with the broader society, half of their people succumbed within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua people faced the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are extremely at risk—from a disease perspective, any exposure might introduce sicknesses, and even the simplest ones may eliminate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or disruption can be highly damaging to their way of life and well-being as a society.”

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