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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small glade within in the Peruvian rainforest when he noticed movements drawing near through the dense forest.

It dawned on him that he stood surrounded, and halted.

“One person stood, pointing with an arrow,” he states. “Unexpectedly he became aware of my presence and I commenced to run.”

He found himself encountering members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—was practically a neighbor to these itinerant tribe, who avoid engagement with foreigners.

A new report from a advocacy group claims there are at least 196 termed “remote communities” in existence in the world. The group is believed to be the largest. It says 50% of these communities might be wiped out over the coming ten years if governments neglect to implement further actions to defend them.

It argues the greatest threats stem from timber harvesting, extraction or exploration for petroleum. Isolated tribes are exceptionally at risk to basic illness—as such, the study says a risk is posed by interaction with evangelical missionaries and online personalities seeking engagement.

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

The village is a fishermen's village of seven or eight households, sitting elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu River deep within the of Peru jungle, 10 hours from the nearest village by watercraft.

The territory is not classified as a preserved reserve for remote communities, and deforestation operations work here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the sound of logging machinery can be heard day and night, and the tribe members are seeing their forest disturbed and destroyed.

Among the locals, inhabitants report they are torn. They fear the projectiles but they hold strong respect for their “relatives” residing in the woodland and want to safeguard them.

“Let them live in their own way, we are unable to modify their way of life. That's why we preserve our separation,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the community's way of life, the danger of violence and the possibility that timber workers might expose the community to illnesses they have no immunity to.

At the time in the settlement, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia, a young mother with a young daughter, was in the forest picking food when she heard them.

“There were shouting, cries from individuals, a large number of them. Like there was a crowd yelling,” she shared with us.

It was the first instance she had encountered the tribe and she fled. Subsequently, her mind was still pounding from terror.

“As operate deforestation crews and operations clearing the jungle they're running away, possibly due to terror and they end up in proximity to us,” she stated. “We don't know how they will behave with us. That's what terrifies me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the Mashco Piro while fishing. A single person was hit by an arrow to the abdomen. He lived, but the other person was located deceased subsequently with multiple injuries in his frame.

The Peruvian government follows a approach of non-contact with secluded communities, making it forbidden to start encounters with them.

The policy originated in Brazil after decades of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that early exposure with isolated people could lead to whole populations being eliminated by illness, destitution and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in Peru first encountered with the outside world, a significant portion of their community succumbed within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely at risk—epidemiologically, any exposure may transmit diseases, and even the most common illnesses may eliminate them,” explains a representative from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any contact or disruption could be highly damaging to their way of life and well-being as a society.”

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