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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small glade within in the of Peru jungle when he heard movements drawing near through the dense woodland.

It dawned on him that he had been encircled, and halted.

“A single individual stood, directing with an projectile,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he became aware of my presence and I began to escape.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the small settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a local to these wandering individuals, who shun contact with strangers.

A recent report by a human rights organization states remain at least 196 of what it calls “remote communities” left worldwide. This tribe is thought to be the most numerous. The report says half of these tribes may be wiped out over the coming ten years should administrations neglect to implement more measures to safeguard them.

It claims the biggest risks come from logging, digging or drilling for crude. Isolated tribes are exceptionally at risk to ordinary sickness—consequently, the study states a risk is presented by contact with proselytizers and digital content creators looking for clicks.

Recently, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to locals.

This settlement is a angling community of seven or eight households, sitting high on the edges of the local river in the center of the of Peru jungle, a ten-hour journey from the nearest town by canoe.

The area is not designated as a protected area for remote communities, and timber firms work here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the racket of logging machinery can be heard day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their forest disrupted and destroyed.

In Nueva Oceania, residents say they are conflicted. They fear the projectiles but they also possess strong admiration for their “kin” dwelling in the jungle and desire to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we can't modify their traditions. This is why we preserve our distance,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of violence and the likelihood that deforestation crews might expose the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the settlement, the Mashco Piro appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a two-year-old girl, was in the woodland gathering produce when she noticed them.

“There were calls, shouts from individuals, numerous of them. Like it was a whole group shouting,” she told us.

That was the initial occasion she had met the tribe and she ran. An hour later, her mind was still racing from fear.

“Since there are deforestation crews and firms clearing the woodland they are fleeing, possibly out of fear and they end up close to us,” she said. “It is unclear how they will behave to us. That's what scares me.”

In 2022, two individuals were confronted by the Mashco Piro while angling. One man was hit by an bow to the gut. He lived, but the second individual was located deceased subsequently with multiple arrow wounds in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a approach of no engagement with remote tribes, making it prohibited to commence contact with them.

This approach began in Brazil following many years of advocacy by indigenous rights groups, who noted that first contact with remote tribes lead to entire communities being eliminated by disease, hardship and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in the country first encountered with the outside world, 50% of their population perished within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua community experienced the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very at risk—in terms of health, any contact may spread illnesses, and even the basic infections might decimate them,” explains an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption can be extremely detrimental to their way of life and well-being as a community.”

For those living nearby of {