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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest clearing within in the Peruvian Amazon when he noticed sounds coming closer through the dense woodland.

He realized he was hemmed in, and stood still.

“One stood, directing with an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he detected of my presence and I commenced to run.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—was practically a neighbor to these wandering individuals, who reject interaction with foreigners.

An updated report from a advocacy organization states there are a minimum of 196 described as “isolated tribes” left in the world. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the largest. It states a significant portion of these groups might be decimated over the coming ten years unless authorities fail to take more measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the biggest threats stem from logging, extraction or drilling for oil. Remote communities are extremely vulnerable to ordinary disease—consequently, the study states a risk is caused by contact with religious missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of attention.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing village of a handful of families, perched atop on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the of Peru Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible village by boat.

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

Tomas says that, sometimes, the racket of heavy equipment can be noticed around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their woodland disturbed and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants report they are torn. They are afraid of the projectiles but they hold strong respect for their “kin” dwelling in the jungle and desire to protect them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we are unable to alter their way of life. For this reason we keep our separation,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the community's way of life, the danger of aggression and the chance that loggers might introduce the community to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the community, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia, a resident with a young child, was in the forest gathering food when she heard them.

“We heard calls, cries from individuals, a large number of them. As though it was a whole group calling out,” she told us.

That was the initial occasion she had encountered the tribe and she escaped. Subsequently, her thoughts was still pounding from fear.

“As exist loggers and operations destroying the forest they're running away, perhaps out of fear and they arrive in proximity to us,” she explained. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. This is what scares me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the tribe while fishing. One man was wounded by an projectile to the abdomen. He survived, but the other man was located lifeless after several days with several injuries in his frame.

Authorities in Peru has a strategy of no engagement with isolated people, making it illegal to initiate contact with them.

This approach was first adopted in the neighboring country subsequent to prolonged of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that early interaction with isolated people resulted to entire communities being wiped out by disease, destitution and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in the country made initial contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their people succumbed within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are very susceptible—from a disease perspective, any contact could introduce illnesses, and even the basic infections might decimate them,” states an advocate from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any contact or intrusion could be very harmful to their existence and health as a community.”

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