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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest open space deep in the of Peru jungle when he detected movements approaching through the thick jungle.

He realized that he stood surrounded, and stood still.

“One person positioned, aiming using an arrow,” he states. “Somehow he detected of my presence and I commenced to flee.”

He had come face to face members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbour to these nomadic people, who reject engagement with foreigners.

A recent report from a human rights organisation states there are a minimum of 196 termed “isolated tribes” remaining globally. This tribe is believed to be the biggest. The report states half of these tribes could be eliminated in the next decade if governments neglect to implement more actions to defend them.

The report asserts the greatest risks are from deforestation, digging or exploration for petroleum. Remote communities are extremely at risk to common illness—consequently, the report says a threat is presented by exposure with religious missionaries and online personalities looking for engagement.

Recently, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by locals.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing hamlet of several families, sitting atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the most accessible town by watercraft.

The area is not classified as a safeguarded zone for uncontacted groups, and logging companies function here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the sound of logging machinery can be noticed continuously, and the tribe members are seeing their jungle damaged and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants say they are divided. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have strong regard for their “relatives” residing in the woodland and want to protect them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we are unable to alter their way of life. For this reason we preserve our distance,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the community's way of life, the danger of conflict and the possibility that deforestation crews might subject the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the community, the Mashco Piro appeared again. Letitia, a woman with a toddler girl, was in the forest picking produce when she detected them.

“We heard calls, shouts from others, many of them. As if there were a crowd shouting,” she informed us.

It was the first time she had met the tribe and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her mind was continually racing from terror.

“As operate deforestation crews and operations cutting down the forest they are fleeing, perhaps out of fear and they come close to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they will behave to us. This is what frightens me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the Mashco Piro while angling. A single person was struck by an arrow to the stomach. He survived, but the other man was discovered lifeless days later with nine injuries in his physique.

The Peruvian government maintains a policy of non-contact with isolated people, making it illegal to commence encounters with them.

The policy was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that early contact with secluded communities resulted to whole populations being eliminated by illness, poverty and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in the country came into contact with the outside world, 50% of their people succumbed within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely at risk—in terms of health, any contact may transmit sicknesses, and even the basic infections might wipe them out,” says a representative from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption may be extremely detrimental to their existence and survival as a group.”

For local residents of {