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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest glade far in the of Peru Amazon when he heard movements drawing near through the dense woodland.

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

“One person positioned, directing with an projectile,” he states. “Somehow he became aware that I was present and I began to escape.”

He ended up confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the small village of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a neighbor to these nomadic tribe, who avoid interaction with strangers.

A new report by a human rights group states there are a minimum of 196 of what it calls “remote communities” left in the world. This tribe is considered to be the largest. The report states a significant portion of these groups may be eliminated over the coming ten years if governments fail to take further actions to defend them.

It argues the biggest risks stem from logging, digging or drilling for crude. Remote communities are extremely at risk to ordinary sickness—therefore, the study says a danger is presented by contact with proselytizers and online personalities seeking engagement.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's hamlet of a handful of families, perched high on the edges of the local river in the center of the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the nearest settlement by boat.

The area is not designated as a safeguarded area for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations operate here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the noise of logging machinery can be heard continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are seeing their forest disturbed and devastated.

Among the locals, inhabitants report they are torn. They dread the tribal weapons but they also have strong regard for their “relatives” who live in the jungle and want to protect them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we must not alter their culture. For this reason we preserve our distance,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the community's way of life, the danger of conflict and the chance that timber workers might introduce the tribe to illnesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the settlement, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a toddler girl, was in the forest collecting food when she noticed them.

“We detected calls, sounds from others, numerous of them. Like there was a large gathering shouting,” she told us.

This marked the first time she had met the Mashco Piro and she ran. Subsequently, her mind was continually pounding from anxiety.

“As there are timber workers and firms destroying the forest they are escaping, maybe because of dread and they end up in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain what their response may be with us. That's what scares me.”

Recently, two individuals were confronted by the tribe while angling. One was hit by an bow to the gut. He survived, but the other person was located lifeless days later with multiple injuries in his body.

The administration maintains a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it prohibited to commence encounters with them.

This approach began in the neighboring country after decades of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who observed that early exposure with remote tribes resulted to entire groups being eliminated by disease, destitution and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in the country first encountered with the world outside, half of their people perished within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community faced the identical outcome.

“Remote tribes are extremely at risk—in terms of health, any contact may transmit diseases, and including the basic infections could decimate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “In cultural terms, any interaction or interference may be very harmful to their existence and health as a group.”

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