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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest glade within in the Peruvian rainforest when he noticed movements drawing near through the dense jungle.

He realized he was surrounded, and halted.

“One person stood, aiming with an bow and arrow,” he states. “Somehow he detected I was here and I began to escape.”

He ended up confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbour to these nomadic individuals, who reject engagement with strangers.

An updated document from a rights organization indicates there are a minimum of 196 of what it calls “remote communities” left worldwide. The group is considered to be the biggest. It claims 50% of these tribes may be wiped out over the coming ten years unless authorities don't do more measures to safeguard them.

It claims the most significant risks are from deforestation, mining or operations for petroleum. Isolated tribes are highly susceptible to common disease—therefore, it states a danger is caused by exposure with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of engagement.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from locals.

This settlement is a angling community of several households, sitting elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the of Peru Amazon, half a day from the most accessible town by boat.

This region is not classified as a safeguarded area for remote communities, and logging companies work here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be detected day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their woodland disrupted and destroyed.

Among the locals, people report they are divided. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess strong respect for their “relatives” residing in the forest and want to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we can't change their way of life. For this reason we keep our distance,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the community's way of life, the danger of violence and the possibility that loggers might expose the tribe to diseases they have no resistance to.

At the time in the village, the group made themselves known again. Letitia, a woman with a toddler daughter, was in the jungle collecting food when she noticed them.

“We detected calls, sounds from individuals, a large number of them. Like it was a whole group calling out,” she shared with us.

It was the first instance she had encountered the tribe and she ran. An hour later, her head was persistently pounding from terror.

“As there are timber workers and companies destroying the forest they're running away, possibly because of dread and they end up in proximity to us,” she stated. “We don't know how they might react towards us. This is what terrifies me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the Mashco Piro while fishing. One was hit by an bow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the other person was located deceased after several days with multiple injuries in his physique.

Authorities in Peru follows a policy of no engagement with secluded communities, rendering it illegal to start encounters with them.

The policy was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of campaigning by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that initial interaction with isolated people could lead to whole populations being decimated by disease, hardship and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in the country first encountered with the outside world, half of their people perished within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the same fate.

“Secluded communities are very susceptible—from a disease perspective, any exposure might transmit illnesses, and including the basic infections may wipe them out,” says Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any interaction or interference could be highly damaging to their way of life and health as a society.”

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