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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny clearing deep in the of Peru rainforest when he detected movements approaching through the dense woodland.

It dawned on him that he had been encircled, and froze.

“A single individual positioned, pointing with an projectile,” he remembers. “And somehow he noticed that I was present and I began to flee.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a local to these nomadic tribe, who avoid contact with outsiders.

A new report issued by a rights organisation claims there are at least 196 described as “remote communities” left globally. This tribe is believed to be the most numerous. The study claims 50% of these groups could be decimated within ten years should administrations neglect to implement further actions to defend them.

It claims the biggest dangers are from timber harvesting, extraction or operations for crude. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to ordinary disease—therefore, it states a danger is presented by exposure with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of clicks.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by locals.

The village is a fishing village of seven or eight clans, located elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the of Peru rainforest, 10 hours from the most accessible village by boat.

This region is not recognised as a preserved zone for remote communities, and deforestation operations work here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the sound of logging machinery can be noticed around the clock, and the tribe members are seeing their woodland disrupted and ruined.

In Nueva Oceania, inhabitants state they are divided. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold profound respect for their “kin” who live in the woodland and wish to protect them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we can't alter their way of life. This is why we maintain our distance,” explains Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the tribe's survival, the risk of aggression and the likelihood that loggers might subject the Mashco Piro to diseases they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the settlement, the Mashco Piro appeared again. A young mother, a young mother with a two-year-old girl, was in the woodland gathering fruit when she heard them.

“There were cries, shouts from individuals, numerous of them. As if there was a whole group calling out,” she informed us.

That was the first instance she had met the group and she fled. An hour later, her mind was still pounding from anxiety.

“Since operate loggers and operations clearing the jungle they are escaping, possibly because of dread and they arrive in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. This is what scares me.”

Recently, two loggers were confronted by the group while angling. One was hit by an bow to the abdomen. He lived, but the other person was located lifeless days later with multiple arrow wounds in his body.

The administration maintains a policy of non-contact with secluded communities, making it prohibited to commence interactions with them.

The policy began in Brazil following many years of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who observed that initial interaction with isolated people resulted to entire groups being decimated by sickness, poverty and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in Peru came into contact with the broader society, a significant portion of their population perished within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are extremely vulnerable—in terms of health, any interaction could transmit illnesses, and including the simplest ones might eliminate them,” says an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any exposure or intrusion may be highly damaging to their life and survival as a society.”

For those living nearby of {