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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny clearing far in the of Peru Amazon when he detected sounds drawing near through the thick forest.

He became aware that he had been hemmed in, and halted.

“One was standing, aiming with an projectile,” he states. “Somehow he detected I was here and I started to escape.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbor to these wandering tribe, who avoid interaction with foreigners.

A new report by a human rights organisation indicates exist at least 196 termed “remote communities” in existence in the world. This tribe is believed to be the biggest. The report claims 50% of these communities may be decimated within ten years unless authorities fail to take more measures to safeguard them.

It argues the biggest risks come from timber harvesting, mining or operations for petroleum. Remote communities are highly at risk to basic disease—therefore, it says a risk is caused by contact with religious missionaries and social media influencers looking for attention.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing community of seven or eight households, perched high on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the closest town by boat.

The area is not classified as a preserved area for isolated tribes, and logging companies operate here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the sound of logging machinery can be noticed around the clock, and the tribe members are observing their forest damaged and destroyed.

In Nueva Oceania, people say they are conflicted. They dread the tribal weapons but they also possess profound admiration for their “brothers” residing in the woodland and wish to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we must not alter their way of life. This is why we keep our separation,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the community's way of life, the risk of conflict and the chance that loggers might expose the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the settlement, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a young girl, was in the forest collecting food when she noticed them.

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

It was the first time she had encountered the tribe and she ran. Subsequently, her head was continually racing from anxiety.

“Because there are deforestation crews and operations cutting down the forest they are escaping, maybe out of fear and they arrive close to us,” she stated. “It is unclear how they might react to us. This is what frightens me.”

In 2022, two loggers were assaulted by the group while catching fish. One was wounded by an arrow to the abdomen. He survived, but the second individual was discovered lifeless subsequently with several injuries in his physique.

The Peruvian government maintains a approach of non-contact with remote tribes, making it forbidden to initiate encounters with them.

The policy began in Brazil following many years of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that early contact with remote tribes could lead to entire communities being decimated by sickness, hardship and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country made initial contact with the broader society, 50% of their population died within a few years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the same fate.

“Remote tribes are highly vulnerable—from a disease perspective, any exposure may introduce diseases, and even the simplest ones may eliminate them,” says an advocate from a tribal support group. “Culturally too, any contact or intrusion may be highly damaging to their existence and survival as a society.”

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