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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest clearing far in the Peruvian Amazon when he heard footsteps coming closer through the lush woodland.

He realized that he stood hemmed in, and stood still.

“One was standing, directing with an arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he noticed I was here and I started to flee.”

He had come encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the small settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a neighbour to these wandering individuals, who reject contact with outsiders.

A new study by a rights organization states remain no fewer than 196 of what it calls “remote communities” in existence in the world. The group is believed to be the largest. The study claims a significant portion of these communities might be decimated over the coming ten years unless authorities fail to take more measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the most significant dangers are from deforestation, extraction or exploration for petroleum. Isolated tribes are exceptionally vulnerable to common disease—consequently, the study says a danger is caused by exposure with religious missionaries and digital content creators seeking engagement.

Recently, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from locals.

This settlement is a fishermen's village of a handful of clans, located elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the of Peru jungle, 10 hours from the closest settlement by watercraft.

The area is not designated as a safeguarded reserve for remote communities, and logging companies work here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the sound of logging machinery can be noticed day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are seeing their jungle disturbed and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants report they are torn. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have deep regard for their “kin” dwelling in the forest and wish to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live according to their traditions, we can't modify their culture. For this reason we keep our separation,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the community's way of life, the threat of aggression and the chance that deforestation crews might introduce the Mashco Piro to diseases they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the village, the tribe made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a young child, was in the forest gathering fruit when she heard them.

“There were shouting, shouts from others, a large number of them. As if it was a whole group shouting,” she informed us.

It was the initial occasion she had met the group and she ran. After sixty minutes, her mind was persistently pounding from fear.

“Since exist deforestation crews and firms cutting down the jungle they're running away, possibly because of dread and they come close to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they might react to us. This is what terrifies me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the tribe while catching fish. A single person was wounded by an projectile to the gut. He survived, but the second individual was located lifeless days later with several injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a strategy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, rendering it illegal to start contact with them.

This approach originated in the neighboring country after decades of campaigning by community representatives, who saw that initial interaction with isolated people lead to entire groups being wiped out by disease, destitution and hunger.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country made initial contact with the broader society, half of their people succumbed within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the similar destiny.

“Secluded communities are very susceptible—in terms of health, any exposure could transmit illnesses, and even the basic infections might decimate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption may be very harmful to their way of life and well-being as a community.”

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