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Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a tiny glade within in the Peruvian Amazon when he detected footsteps drawing near through the thick forest.

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

“A single individual stood, directing with an bow and arrow,” he states. “Somehow he noticed of my presence and I commenced to flee.”

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

An updated report by a human rights organization indicates there are no fewer than 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” left globally. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the most numerous. It states half of these tribes could be wiped out over the coming ten years if governments neglect to implement further actions to defend them.

The report asserts the most significant threats are from logging, mining or drilling for oil. Isolated tribes are extremely vulnerable to basic sickness—as such, the report says a risk is caused by exposure with proselytizers and social media influencers seeking engagement.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by locals.

This settlement is a fishing hamlet of a handful of families, perched atop on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the most accessible town by canoe.

The territory is not classified as a safeguarded area for remote communities, and deforestation operations operate here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the sound of logging machinery can be noticed continuously, and the tribe members are witnessing their jungle disrupted and ruined.

Among the locals, residents state they are conflicted. They fear the projectiles but they also have strong admiration for their “relatives” dwelling in the forest and want to protect them.

“Let them live in their own way, we must not modify their way of life. This is why we maintain our separation,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of violence and the likelihood that loggers might subject the tribe to illnesses they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the settlement, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a toddler daughter, was in the woodland gathering fruit when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from others, many of them. As though it was a large gathering calling out,” she informed us.

This marked the initial occasion she had come across the tribe and she fled. Subsequently, her head was persistently racing from anxiety.

“Since exist loggers and companies clearing the woodland they're running away, possibly out of fear and they end up close to us,” she stated. “It is unclear what their response may be with us. This is what frightens me.”

In 2022, two individuals were attacked by the group while angling. One man was hit by an projectile to the stomach. He survived, but the second individual was located dead subsequently with several arrow wounds in his physique.

The Peruvian government has a strategy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, establishing it as forbidden to start interactions with them.

The strategy began in Brazil after decades of advocacy by community representatives, who saw that first contact with secluded communities could lead to entire communities being decimated by disease, destitution and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country first encountered with the outside world, 50% of their people succumbed within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the similar destiny.

“Secluded communities are very at risk—epidemiologically, any interaction could spread diseases, and including the simplest ones could eliminate them,” explains a representative from a local advocacy organization. “In cultural terms, any interaction or intrusion can be extremely detrimental to their way of life and well-being as a community.”

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