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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a small clearing far in the of Peru rainforest when he detected footsteps coming closer through the thick woodland.

He realized he was hemmed in, and froze.

“One person stood, directing with an bow and arrow,” he states. “And somehow he detected of my presence and I started to escape.”

He ended up face to face the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the small community of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a neighbour to these nomadic people, who shun interaction with outsiders.

A new study by a advocacy group claims remain at least 196 described as “remote communities” remaining globally. This tribe is thought to be the biggest. The report states half of these communities might be decimated over the coming ten years should administrations don't do further actions to defend them.

It argues the most significant dangers come from logging, digging or drilling for oil. Isolated tribes are highly at risk to common disease—as such, the report states a danger is presented by interaction with proselytizers and social media influencers in pursuit of attention.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from inhabitants.

This settlement is a angling hamlet of seven or eight families, perched high on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian rainforest, 10 hours from the nearest town by watercraft.

The territory is not recognised as a preserved zone for remote communities, and timber firms operate here.

Tomas reports that, at times, the sound of industrial tools can be heard continuously, and the community are seeing their forest disrupted and destroyed.

In Nueva Oceania, residents report they are torn. They fear the projectiles but they also possess strong regard for their “relatives” who live in the woodland and desire to defend them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we must not change their way of life. For this reason we keep our separation,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the community's way of life, the risk of aggression and the chance that deforestation crews might subject the tribe to illnesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the village, the tribe made their presence felt again. A young mother, a young mother with a young girl, was in the forest picking produce when she noticed them.

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

That was the first instance she had come across the Mashco Piro and she fled. An hour later, her thoughts was continually pounding from fear.

“Because operate timber workers and firms cutting down the jungle they are escaping, perhaps because of dread and they come near us,” she said. “It is unclear how they might react to us. That is the thing that scares me.”

In 2022, two loggers were assaulted by the tribe while catching fish. A single person was wounded by an bow to the gut. He recovered, but the other man was found lifeless after several days with nine puncture marks in his frame.

The administration has a approach of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it forbidden to initiate interactions with them.

The policy originated in Brazil after decades of lobbying by community representatives, who noted that early interaction with isolated people could lead to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, poverty and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in Peru came into contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their community succumbed within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people suffered the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are very vulnerable—epidemiologically, any interaction may introduce illnesses, and including the most common illnesses might decimate them,” states an advocate from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or disruption can be highly damaging to their life and survival as a group.”

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