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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small open space within in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed movements approaching through the lush jungle.

It dawned on him he was hemmed in, and froze.

“One person stood, aiming with an arrow,” he states. “And somehow he noticed that I was present and I commenced to run.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the small community of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbour to these nomadic people, who shun engagement with foreigners.

An updated study issued by a rights group claims remain at least 196 described as “remote communities” remaining in the world. This tribe is thought to be the most numerous. It states half of these tribes could be wiped out over the coming ten years unless authorities fail to take additional actions to defend them.

It claims the greatest dangers are from deforestation, extraction or operations for oil. Remote communities are extremely at risk to common disease—as such, it notes a risk is presented by contact with proselytizers and digital content creators seeking attention.

In recent times, members of the tribe have been venturing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to locals.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's community of a handful of households, located high on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the most accessible town by canoe.

This region is not designated as a protected area for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas reports that, at times, the racket of industrial tools can be heard continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their woodland disrupted and ruined.

Within the village, residents say they are torn. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold strong admiration for their “kin” residing in the forest and desire to safeguard them.

“Let them live as they live, we are unable to alter their way of life. For this reason we preserve our space,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of conflict and the possibility that loggers might subject the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no defense to.

While we were in the settlement, the tribe appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a young girl, was in the forest picking produce when she heard them.

“There were cries, cries from others, many of them. As if there were a crowd shouting,” she informed us.

That was the first instance she had come across the Mashco Piro and she escaped. Subsequently, her head was still racing from anxiety.

“As there are deforestation crews and firms clearing the jungle they are escaping, perhaps because of dread and they end up in proximity to us,” she said. “We don't know what their response may be towards us. That's what scares me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were assaulted by the tribe while angling. One man was struck by an arrow to the abdomen. He survived, but the second individual was discovered dead days later with multiple injuries in his physique.

The Peruvian government follows a strategy of avoiding interaction with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to start interactions with them.

The policy was first adopted in a nearby nation after decades of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who saw that first contact with remote tribes resulted to entire communities being eliminated by disease, hardship and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in Peru came into contact with the broader society, 50% of their people perished within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the similar destiny.

“Secluded communities are highly at risk—from a disease perspective, any contact might transmit sicknesses, and even the simplest ones may decimate them,” says a representative from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any interaction or interference may be very harmful to their life and survival as a community.”

For those living nearby of {