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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny clearing within in the of Peru rainforest when he detected movements drawing near through the thick forest.

He became aware that he had been encircled, and stood still.

“A single individual stood, pointing with an arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he detected I was here and I started to flee.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the small village of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbor to these wandering individuals, who avoid interaction with outsiders.

A recent document from a advocacy organization claims there are a minimum of 196 termed “uncontacted groups” remaining globally. This tribe is believed to be the largest. The study claims 50% of these communities could be decimated within ten years if governments fail to take further to protect them.

It argues the greatest risks are from logging, extraction or operations for crude. Isolated tribes are exceptionally susceptible to common disease—consequently, it notes a danger is caused by contact with religious missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of engagement.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by inhabitants.

The village is a fishermen's community of several families, sitting high on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the closest settlement by boat.

The area is not designated as a protected area for uncontacted groups, and timber firms work here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the noise of industrial tools can be heard around the clock, and the tribe members are observing their jungle disrupted and destroyed.

Among the locals, residents say they are torn. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold deep admiration for their “kin” residing in the forest and desire to safeguard them.

“Let them live in their own way, we must not change their way of life. This is why we keep our distance,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the tribe's survival, the risk of conflict and the possibility that deforestation crews might subject the community to illnesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the settlement, the Mashco Piro appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a two-year-old daughter, was in the forest collecting food when she noticed them.

“There were cries, sounds from individuals, many of them. As if there were a large gathering yelling,” she told us.

This marked the first time she had come across the group and she fled. An hour later, her head was continually throbbing from terror.

“As there are loggers and companies clearing the jungle they are escaping, maybe because of dread and they end up near us,” she stated. “It is unclear what their response may be with us. That is the thing that scares me.”

In 2022, two loggers were attacked by the Mashco Piro while fishing. One was hit by an arrow to the gut. He lived, but the other person was discovered deceased days later with several injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government maintains a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it prohibited to start contact with them.

The strategy was first adopted in Brazil after decades of advocacy by community representatives, who observed that early interaction with secluded communities could lead to whole populations being wiped out by disease, hardship and hunger.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru came into contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their population died within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very at risk—epidemiologically, any exposure may transmit illnesses, and including the basic infections could decimate them,” explains a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or interference can be very harmful to their life and well-being as a community.”

For local residents of {