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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small open space deep in the Peruvian Amazon when he noticed footsteps coming closer through the lush forest.

He realized he was surrounded, and stood still.

“A single individual stood, aiming with an arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he became aware of my presence and I started to escape.”

He had come face to face members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbour to these itinerant people, who shun contact with strangers.

An updated study from a advocacy organisation states remain no fewer than 196 described as “remote communities” left globally. This tribe is thought to be the largest. The report states half of these communities could be wiped out over the coming ten years if governments neglect to implement more measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the greatest threats stem from timber harvesting, extraction or exploration for oil. Remote communities are exceptionally vulnerable to ordinary illness—consequently, the study states a threat is presented by contact with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers seeking engagement.

Lately, members of the tribe have been venturing to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's community of seven or eight families, located atop on the edges of the local river in the center of the of Peru Amazon, half a day from the closest settlement by canoe.

This region is not recognised as a protected reserve for uncontacted groups, and timber firms function here.

Tomas reports that, at times, the sound of logging machinery can be noticed around the clock, and the community are observing their woodland disrupted and ruined.

Within the village, residents say they are torn. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have deep regard for their “relatives” dwelling in the jungle and desire to protect them.

“Let them live as they live, we must not alter their way of life. That's why we maintain our separation,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the tribe's survival, the risk of aggression and the possibility that loggers might introduce the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the settlement, the Mashco Piro appeared again. Letitia, a resident with a toddler child, was in the woodland picking fruit when she heard them.

“There were shouting, sounds from people, a large number of them. As though there was a large gathering yelling,” she informed us.

That was the initial occasion she had come across the tribe and she ran. Subsequently, her thoughts was still racing from fear.

“Since operate deforestation crews and companies cutting down the forest they are fleeing, maybe out of fear and they end up close to us,” she said. “It is unclear how they might react towards us. This is what terrifies me.”

In 2022, two loggers were attacked by the Mashco Piro while fishing. One man was wounded by an bow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the second individual was found lifeless after several days with several injuries in his frame.

The Peruvian government maintains a strategy of non-contact with isolated people, establishing it as illegal to initiate contact with them.

The strategy began in Brazil after decades of advocacy by community representatives, who noted that initial exposure with remote tribes could lead to whole populations being wiped out by illness, destitution and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in Peru first encountered with the outside world, a significant portion of their community died within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people suffered the same fate.

“Secluded communities are highly at risk—in terms of health, any contact might introduce diseases, and including the basic infections might decimate them,” says a representative from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any contact or interference may be extremely detrimental to their life and health as a group.”

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