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Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a small glade deep in the Peruvian Amazon when he detected footsteps coming closer through the dense woodland.

It dawned on him he was encircled, and stood still.

“One positioned, directing using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he noticed I was here and I commenced to flee.”

He had come confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—was practically a local to these wandering individuals, who avoid contact with outsiders.

A recent document by a human rights group states there are a minimum of 196 termed “isolated tribes” remaining globally. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the biggest. The study claims 50% of these communities might be eliminated in the next decade if governments neglect to implement more actions to defend them.

It argues the greatest threats stem from deforestation, digging or exploration for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to ordinary disease—as such, the report notes a risk is posed by exposure with religious missionaries and digital content creators looking for clicks.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from residents.

This settlement is a fishing village of a handful of households, located elevated on the banks of the local river in the center of the of Peru Amazon, half a day from the nearest town by boat.

The territory is not classified as a preserved reserve for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the noise of heavy equipment can be noticed around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are seeing their jungle disturbed and destroyed.

Among the locals, people report they are conflicted. They are afraid of the projectiles but they also possess strong respect for their “relatives” residing in the forest and desire to defend them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we can't modify their way of life. This is why we keep our space,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the tribe's survival, the danger of aggression and the possibility that deforestation crews might expose the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the village, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a two-year-old child, was in the jungle gathering produce when she heard them.

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

It was the first time she had come across the Mashco Piro and she fled. An hour later, her head was continually racing from terror.

“As operate deforestation crews and operations destroying the forest they are escaping, maybe due to terror and they come near us,” she said. “It is unclear how they will behave with us. That's what terrifies me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the Mashco Piro while fishing. One was struck by an bow to the gut. He lived, but the other man was discovered deceased after several days with multiple arrow wounds in his physique.

The administration follows a strategy of non-contact with secluded communities, establishing it as forbidden to initiate contact with them.

The strategy originated in a nearby nation after decades of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that early contact with secluded communities lead to entire groups being eliminated by sickness, poverty and hunger.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country made initial contact with the outside world, 50% of their community died within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are very at risk—in terms of health, any exposure may introduce sicknesses, and even the basic infections may decimate them,” explains an advocate from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption can be highly damaging to their way of life and well-being as a society.”

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