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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny glade deep in the of Peru Amazon when he heard sounds coming closer through the lush jungle.

He became aware that he stood encircled, and halted.

“One person stood, pointing with an arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he noticed of my presence and I commenced to run.”

He had come encountering members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbour to these wandering tribe, who reject interaction with strangers.

A recent document issued by a human rights organization indicates exist a minimum of 196 of what it calls “remote communities” in existence worldwide. The group is believed to be the largest. The report claims 50% of these groups could be decimated in the next decade unless authorities neglect to implement further actions to defend them.

It argues the biggest threats are from logging, mining or drilling for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are highly at risk to ordinary sickness—as such, it states a danger is posed by contact with proselytizers and online personalities in pursuit of engagement.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by locals.

This settlement is a fishermen's village of several clans, sitting atop on the shores of the local river deep within the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the most accessible village by watercraft.

The territory is not designated as a safeguarded area for uncontacted groups, and logging companies work here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be heard day and night, and the community are seeing their woodland disturbed and devastated.

Within the village, people say they are divided. They are afraid of the projectiles but they also possess deep admiration for their “brothers” residing in the jungle and wish to protect them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we must not change their way of life. For this reason we keep our space,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of violence and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the tribe to diseases they have no defense to.

During a visit in the village, the tribe made themselves known again. A young mother, a woman with a toddler child, was in the jungle collecting fruit when she heard them.

“We detected calls, cries from people, numerous of them. As if there was a large gathering yelling,” she informed us.

That was the first instance she had encountered the group and she fled. Subsequently, her mind was persistently throbbing from terror.

“As exist timber workers and firms clearing the forest they are escaping, maybe because of dread and they arrive near us,” she said. “It is unclear how they might react to us. This is what scares me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the group while catching fish. One was struck by an projectile to the abdomen. He survived, but the other man was located deceased days later with several puncture marks in his body.

Authorities in Peru has a policy of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, establishing it as prohibited to commence encounters with them.

This approach originated in the neighboring country following many years of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that initial interaction with isolated people resulted to entire communities being wiped out by illness, hardship and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in Peru made initial contact with the world outside, a significant portion of their people died within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua community experienced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are highly vulnerable—epidemiologically, any contact might transmit sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses might decimate them,” explains an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any interaction or disruption can be highly damaging to their way of life and survival as a community.”

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