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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest open space far in the of Peru rainforest when he noticed footsteps approaching through the thick forest.

It dawned on him that he stood surrounded, and froze.

“A single individual stood, pointing with an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he noticed of my presence and I began to escape.”

He found himself confronting members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—was practically a local to these itinerant people, who shun contact with strangers.

A new report from a advocacy organization claims exist at least 196 described as “remote communities” left in the world. The group is considered to be the biggest. It states half of these communities could be eliminated in the next decade should administrations neglect to implement more actions to defend them.

The report asserts the biggest threats come from logging, mining or operations for petroleum. Remote communities are highly susceptible to basic disease—consequently, the report says a threat is presented by exposure with religious missionaries and social media influencers looking for clicks.

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

This settlement is a fishermen's community of a handful of families, perched atop on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the nearest town by canoe.

This region is not designated as a protected zone for remote communities, and timber firms function here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the sound of heavy equipment can be noticed continuously, and the tribe members are witnessing their forest damaged and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, people say they are divided. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold deep respect for their “relatives” dwelling in the forest and wish to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we must not alter their culture. This is why we maintain our separation,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of aggression and the chance that loggers might subject the tribe to diseases they have no defense to.

During a visit in the community, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia, a resident with a toddler girl, was in the jungle collecting produce when she detected them.

“We detected shouting, cries from others, many of them. As if there were a whole group shouting,” she informed us.

It was the initial occasion she had come across the group and she escaped. Subsequently, her thoughts was continually racing from terror.

“Because operate timber workers and operations destroying the forest they are escaping, possibly due to terror and they arrive close to us,” she said. “We are uncertain what their response may be towards us. That's what frightens me.”

In 2022, two loggers were attacked by the group while catching fish. A single person was wounded by an bow to the stomach. He lived, but the other person was found lifeless days later with several arrow wounds in his body.

The administration has a approach of non-contact with secluded communities, making it illegal to commence interactions with them.

The policy originated in Brazil after decades of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who observed that initial interaction with secluded communities could lead to entire groups being eliminated by disease, poverty and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the outside world, half of their community succumbed within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very at risk—from a disease perspective, any contact may spread diseases, and including the basic infections may wipe them out,” explains an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any contact or disruption could be extremely detrimental to their way of life and survival as a group.”

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