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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest clearing within in the Peruvian Amazon when he heard footsteps drawing near through the thick jungle.

He became aware that he had been surrounded, and stood still.

“A single individual positioned, pointing with an projectile,” he states. “And somehow he became aware of my presence and I started to run.”

He had come confronting the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—was almost a local to these itinerant individuals, who avoid contact with strangers.

An updated report by a human rights organisation claims exist a minimum of 196 termed “remote communities” remaining in the world. The group is believed to be the biggest. The study states 50% of these groups could be decimated in the next decade unless authorities don't do additional to protect them.

The report asserts the biggest threats stem from logging, extraction or operations for oil. Isolated tribes are highly susceptible to basic illness—as such, it states a danger is caused by exposure with religious missionaries and social media influencers seeking attention.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been venturing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by inhabitants.

The village is a fishermen's hamlet of a handful of clans, sitting high on the banks of the local river deep within the Peruvian rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible town by watercraft.

This region is not classified as a safeguarded zone for isolated tribes, and timber firms function here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the racket of logging machinery can be detected around the clock, and the community are seeing their jungle disturbed and destroyed.

Among the locals, residents state they are torn. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess strong respect for their “brothers” dwelling in the woodland and want to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we are unable to change their traditions. This is why we keep our separation,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the community's way of life, the threat of violence and the chance that deforestation crews might subject the tribe to sicknesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the village, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a young daughter, was in the forest picking food when she heard them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from people, numerous of them. As if there was a whole group calling out,” she shared with us.

This marked the first time she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her head was still racing from fear.

“Because there are deforestation crews and firms destroying the jungle they're running away, perhaps out of fear and they arrive near us,” she explained. “It is unclear what their response may be to us. This is what terrifies me.”

Two years ago, two loggers were attacked by the tribe while catching fish. One man was wounded by an arrow to the gut. He survived, but the other person was located deceased after several days with multiple puncture marks in his frame.

Authorities in Peru maintains a policy of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, establishing it as forbidden to commence contact with them.

The strategy originated in Brazil after decades of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who saw that first exposure with secluded communities resulted to entire communities being eliminated by illness, poverty and hunger.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru first encountered with the outside world, 50% of their community perished within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are extremely susceptible—from a disease perspective, any exposure may introduce illnesses, and even the basic infections could wipe them out,” explains a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any interaction or interference could be highly damaging to their existence and survival as a society.”

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