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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small glade deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he detected sounds drawing near through the lush jungle.

He realized that he had been surrounded, and froze.

“One person stood, directing with an arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he became aware of my presence and I started to escape.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a local to these wandering tribe, who shun interaction with outsiders.

A recent document issued by a human rights organization indicates remain at least 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” left globally. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the most numerous. It says 50% of these tribes could be eliminated in the next decade unless authorities fail to take additional measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the biggest threats come from logging, mining or exploration for oil. Isolated tribes are extremely vulnerable to common illness—as such, the report notes a danger is presented by contact with proselytizers and social media influencers in pursuit of attention.

Lately, members of the tribe have been venturing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to locals.

The village is a fishermen's village of a handful of households, sitting high on the shores of the local river in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, 10 hours from the closest village by canoe.

This region is not recognised as a protected area for isolated tribes, and logging companies function here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the sound of logging machinery can be noticed continuously, and the tribe members are observing their jungle disrupted and destroyed.

In Nueva Oceania, people say they are torn. They are afraid of the projectiles but they also possess profound respect for their “brothers” residing in the forest and want to protect them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we must not modify their culture. For this reason we preserve our distance,” explains Tomas.

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

While we were in the village, the Mashco Piro made themselves known again. Letitia, a woman with a toddler daughter, was in the forest collecting produce when she heard them.

“There were calls, shouts from individuals, numerous of them. Like there was a whole group yelling,” she told us.

That was the first time she had met the Mashco Piro and she ran. After sixty minutes, her head was continually racing from anxiety.

“Since exist timber workers and companies clearing the jungle they are fleeing, maybe due to terror and they come near us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they might react with us. That is the thing that terrifies me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the tribe while fishing. A single person was wounded by an projectile to the stomach. He survived, but the other person was located deceased subsequently with nine injuries in his frame.

The administration maintains a strategy of no engagement with isolated people, rendering it forbidden to commence encounters with them.

The policy was first adopted in a nearby nation after decades of campaigning by community representatives, who saw that initial contact with remote tribes resulted to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, poverty and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru first encountered with the outside world, a significant portion of their people succumbed within a short period. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are very vulnerable—from a disease perspective, any interaction may spread diseases, and including the basic infections might decimate them,” states Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any contact or intrusion can be highly damaging to their existence and well-being as a society.”

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