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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small glade far in the Peruvian rainforest when he noticed footsteps coming closer through the lush jungle.

He became aware that he stood surrounded, and froze.

“A single individual stood, directing with an projectile,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he became aware that I was present and I started to flee.”

He found himself face to face members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—was virtually a neighbour to these wandering individuals, who reject engagement with outsiders.

A new study from a advocacy organisation states there are a minimum of 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” remaining globally. This tribe is thought to be the largest. It states 50% of these groups may be wiped out in the next decade if governments fail to take further to protect them.

The report asserts the greatest threats come from deforestation, mining or operations for oil. Isolated tribes are highly vulnerable to common sickness—as such, it states a threat is caused by interaction with evangelical missionaries and online personalities seeking engagement.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by locals.

The village is a fishermen's village of a handful of households, located elevated on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway in the center of the of Peru Amazon, 10 hours from the most accessible village by watercraft.

The territory is not recognised as a preserved area for uncontacted groups, and timber firms operate here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the noise of industrial tools can be noticed day and night, and the community are seeing their jungle damaged and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, inhabitants say they are conflicted. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have strong respect for their “brothers” residing in the jungle and desire to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we are unable to change their culture. For this reason we preserve our separation,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of conflict and the likelihood that deforestation crews might introduce the community to illnesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the community, the Mashco Piro made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a two-year-old child, was in the woodland collecting fruit when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, sounds from others, numerous of them. Like it was a large gathering shouting,” she told us.

That was the initial occasion she had come across the tribe and she fled. An hour later, her head was still pounding from terror.

“As there are timber workers and companies clearing the forest they're running away, maybe due to terror and they arrive close to us,” she said. “We don't know how they will behave to us. That's what scares me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the group while angling. One man was struck by an bow to the stomach. He survived, but the other person was discovered lifeless after several days with several arrow wounds in his physique.

The administration follows a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it illegal to start contact with them.

This approach originated in the neighboring country following many years of campaigning by community representatives, who observed that initial exposure with isolated people could lead to whole populations being wiped out by disease, destitution and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country came into contact with the outside world, half of their population perished within a few years. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the same fate.

“Secluded communities are extremely at risk—epidemiologically, any interaction may transmit sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses might wipe them out,” states a representative from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or interference can be highly damaging to their life and health as a society.”

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