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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small clearing far in the Peruvian Amazon when he heard footsteps approaching through the lush forest.

It dawned on him that he had been hemmed in, and stood still.

“One person stood, aiming using an arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he noticed that I was present and I began to escape.”

He had come encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a local to these wandering individuals, who shun contact with outsiders.

A new study from a advocacy organization indicates there are at least 196 termed “uncontacted groups” left in the world. This tribe is believed to be the largest. The study says 50% of these groups may be wiped out within ten years if governments fail to take additional measures to safeguard them.

It claims the greatest dangers are from deforestation, digging or exploration for crude. Remote communities are extremely at risk to basic illness—as such, it states a danger is posed by contact with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of clicks.

Recently, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing community of several families, sitting high on the banks of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the of Peru jungle, half a day from the nearest village by canoe.

The territory is not classified as a protected zone for remote communities, and timber firms work here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the racket of logging machinery can be detected continuously, and the tribe members are witnessing their forest damaged and ruined.

Within the village, inhabitants report they are divided. They dread the projectiles but they also possess strong admiration for their “relatives” residing in the woodland and want to protect them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we must not alter their culture. That's why we keep our distance,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of conflict and the possibility that deforestation crews might introduce the community to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the village, the tribe appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a two-year-old daughter, was in the jungle picking food when she noticed them.

“We detected calls, sounds from others, many of them. As if there were a whole group yelling,” she informed us.

That was the first instance she had met the tribe and she ran. An hour later, her thoughts was persistently throbbing from anxiety.

“Since exist loggers and operations clearing the forest they're running away, maybe out of fear and they come in proximity to us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

In 2022, two individuals were confronted by the tribe while fishing. One man was hit by an bow to the gut. He recovered, but the other person was found dead days later with several injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a policy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, rendering it illegal to commence interactions with them.

This approach began in the neighboring country after decades of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that first interaction with isolated people lead to entire communities being wiped out by illness, poverty and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in Peru made initial contact with the outside world, half of their people perished within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the same fate.

“Remote tribes are very susceptible—in terms of health, any contact might introduce illnesses, and even the basic infections could wipe them out,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or intrusion can be highly damaging to their existence and health as a group.”

For those living nearby of {