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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest open space deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he heard footsteps drawing near through the lush forest.

He realized he was hemmed in, and halted.

“One person positioned, pointing with an arrow,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he noticed I was here and I started to flee.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a neighbour to these itinerant tribe, who avoid contact with foreigners.

A new document by a rights group claims exist a minimum of 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” remaining worldwide. The group is believed to be the most numerous. The report claims 50% of these communities might be wiped out within ten years should administrations neglect to implement further to protect them.

It claims the greatest threats stem from timber harvesting, mining or exploration for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to basic illness—consequently, the report says a danger is posed by exposure with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of engagement.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, according to locals.

Nueva Oceania is a angling village of a handful of households, perched elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the of Peru rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible settlement by canoe.

This region is not designated as a preserved reserve for isolated tribes, and timber firms operate here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the noise of heavy equipment can be detected continuously, and the community are witnessing their woodland damaged and destroyed.

In Nueva Oceania, residents say they are torn. They fear the tribal weapons but they also possess deep admiration for their “kin” who live in the jungle and want to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we must not modify their traditions. This is why we keep our distance,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of conflict and the chance that loggers might subject the tribe to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the community, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a toddler girl, was in the forest picking food when she noticed them.

“We detected cries, sounds from individuals, a large number of them. As though it was a large gathering yelling,” she informed us.

That was the initial occasion she had come across the tribe and she escaped. Subsequently, her head was persistently throbbing from fear.

“Because exist loggers and companies clearing the forest they are escaping, maybe out of fear and they arrive in proximity to us,” she said. “We don't know how they might react with us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

Recently, two individuals were attacked by the tribe while fishing. One was hit by an arrow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the other person was found deceased days later with multiple injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a strategy of non-contact with isolated people, establishing it as prohibited to initiate encounters with them.

This approach was first adopted in Brazil following many years of advocacy by community representatives, who saw that initial contact with remote tribes resulted to entire communities being eliminated by illness, poverty and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in the country came into contact with the broader society, a significant portion of their population died within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community faced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are very at risk—from a disease perspective, any interaction might introduce illnesses, and including the most common illnesses might eliminate them,” explains a representative from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any exposure or interference may be extremely detrimental to their way of life and survival as a group.”

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