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Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest clearing far in the Peruvian Amazon when he noticed footsteps coming closer through the dense jungle.

It dawned on him he was surrounded, and halted.

“One person positioned, pointing with an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he detected of my presence and I commenced to run.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a local to these wandering people, who shun interaction with strangers.

An updated study issued by a human rights organization indicates there are no fewer than 196 of what it calls “remote communities” remaining in the world. This tribe is thought to be the biggest. It claims half of these communities could be decimated over the coming ten years if governments neglect to implement further to protect them.

The report asserts the greatest dangers come from deforestation, mining or exploration for crude. Isolated tribes are exceptionally at risk to common illness—as such, the report states a threat is posed by contact with religious missionaries and online personalities looking for attention.

Lately, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, based on accounts from locals.

This settlement is a fishing hamlet of a handful of families, located high on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the nearest village by watercraft.

This region is not designated as a safeguarded zone for remote communities, and deforestation operations operate here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the racket of heavy equipment can be detected around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their forest disrupted and devastated.

Within the village, residents say they are divided. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold deep admiration for their “brothers” dwelling in the forest and desire to defend them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we must not alter their way of life. That's why we maintain our distance,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the community's way of life, the danger of conflict and the likelihood that deforestation crews might introduce the community to diseases they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the village, the Mashco Piro appeared again. A young mother, a woman with a toddler girl, was in the jungle gathering food when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from others, numerous of them. As if it was a whole group calling out,” she informed us.

It was the first time she had met the Mashco Piro and she ran. Subsequently, her thoughts was still pounding from terror.

“Because operate deforestation crews and companies cutting down the jungle they are escaping, possibly due to terror and they arrive close to us,” she explained. “We are uncertain what their response may be towards us. This is what frightens me.”

In 2022, two individuals were assaulted by the group while catching fish. One was struck by an bow to the gut. He survived, but the other man was discovered deceased days later with multiple arrow wounds in his physique.

The administration follows a policy of non-contact with isolated people, making it forbidden to start encounters with them.

The policy was first adopted in Brazil after decades of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who saw that first contact with remote tribes resulted to entire communities being wiped out by sickness, destitution and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru first encountered with the outside world, 50% of their people perished within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua people faced the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly vulnerable—from a disease perspective, any exposure may introduce diseases, and including the basic infections might wipe them out,” states Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “In cultural terms, any contact or interference could be extremely detrimental to their life and survival as a community.”

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