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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny clearing deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he detected movements drawing near through the lush jungle.

He became aware that he stood hemmed in, and froze.

“One person was standing, pointing using an projectile,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he detected of my presence and I started to escape.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the small settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbour to these itinerant individuals, who reject engagement with strangers.

A new report issued by a advocacy organisation states there are no fewer than 196 described as “uncontacted groups” in existence globally. The group is thought to be the biggest. The report says half of these tribes could be decimated within ten years unless authorities fail to take additional actions to defend them.

It claims the greatest risks stem from logging, mining or exploration for oil. Remote communities are extremely vulnerable to basic illness—therefore, it says a risk is posed by interaction with proselytizers and digital content creators in pursuit of clicks.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by locals.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing community of seven or eight households, sitting high on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the of Peru Amazon, 10 hours from the closest village by canoe.

The area is not recognised as a preserved area for remote communities, and timber firms function here.

Tomas reports that, at times, the racket of logging machinery can be noticed around the clock, and the community are observing their forest disrupted and destroyed.

Among the locals, people say they are torn. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they hold profound respect for their “relatives” dwelling in the forest and want to defend them.

“Permit them to live according to their traditions, we must not alter their way of life. For this reason we maintain our separation,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the damage to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of violence and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the community to diseases they have no defense to.

While we were in the settlement, the group appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a two-year-old girl, was in the jungle picking produce when she heard them.

“There were calls, sounds from people, many of them. As if there was a crowd yelling,” she shared with us.

It was the first instance she had come across the tribe and she fled. Subsequently, her head was continually racing from fear.

“Because operate timber workers and operations destroying the forest they are fleeing, possibly out of fear and they end up close to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. That's what terrifies me.”

In 2022, two loggers were assaulted by the Mashco Piro while angling. One was wounded by an arrow to the stomach. He lived, but the other person was discovered deceased subsequently with nine injuries in his frame.

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

The policy originated in Brazil following many years of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that early contact with isolated people resulted to entire communities being decimated by disease, destitution and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country made initial contact with the broader society, a significant portion of their community succumbed within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are extremely vulnerable—epidemiologically, any contact could transmit sicknesses, and even the basic infections could wipe them out,” states an advocate from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or interference could be extremely detrimental to their existence and health as a community.”

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