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Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a small open space within in the of Peru Amazon when he detected footsteps approaching through the thick jungle.

He realized that he had been encircled, and froze.

“One person stood, pointing using an projectile,” he remembers. “Somehow he noticed that I was present and I commenced to run.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbor to these wandering tribe, who reject contact with strangers.

A new document by a rights organisation states there are a minimum of 196 described as “remote communities” remaining globally. This tribe is believed to be the most numerous. The study says 50% of these communities may be decimated over the coming ten years unless authorities neglect to implement further measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the biggest dangers are from timber harvesting, digging or drilling for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are extremely vulnerable to ordinary disease—consequently, the report states a threat is posed by contact with evangelical missionaries and online personalities looking for engagement.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from locals.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's hamlet of seven or eight families, located high on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the of Peru Amazon, half a day from the nearest town by watercraft.

The territory is not recognised as a safeguarded zone for isolated tribes, and timber firms function here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the sound of logging machinery can be noticed continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are seeing their woodland damaged and ruined.

Among the locals, people say they are divided. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they also have strong regard for their “brothers” dwelling in the forest and desire to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we are unable to alter their way of life. For this reason we keep our separation,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the community's way of life, the threat of conflict and the likelihood that loggers might expose the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no defense to.

While we were in the community, the group appeared again. A young mother, a young mother with a young girl, was in the woodland gathering produce when she noticed them.

“There were shouting, shouts from people, numerous of them. Like there were a whole group shouting,” she shared with us.

This marked the first instance she had come across the Mashco Piro and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her head was continually throbbing from anxiety.

“Because there are timber workers and operations clearing the jungle they are escaping, perhaps due to terror and they arrive near us,” she stated. “It is unclear how they might react with us. That is the thing that terrifies me.”

In 2022, two loggers were attacked by the Mashco Piro while catching fish. One man was wounded by an projectile to the gut. He lived, but the other man was discovered lifeless after several days with several arrow wounds in his frame.

The Peruvian government has a policy of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, rendering it prohibited to start encounters with them.

The strategy began in Brazil following many years of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that first interaction with remote tribes lead to whole populations being wiped out by disease, hardship and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in the country came into contact with the world outside, half of their community died within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are very at risk—epidemiologically, any contact might transmit illnesses, and including the most common illnesses might eliminate them,” explains a representative from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption could be extremely detrimental to their life and survival as a group.”

For local residents of {