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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny open space deep in the of Peru Amazon when he noticed sounds drawing near through the thick jungle.

He realized that he stood encircled, and froze.

“One person was standing, directing using an projectile,” he recalls. “And somehow he noticed I was here and I commenced to flee.”

He had come confronting the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a neighbour to these itinerant individuals, who avoid contact with strangers.

A new study from a human rights organization states remain a minimum of 196 termed “uncontacted groups” remaining globally. The group is considered to be the largest. The study claims a significant portion of these tribes may be decimated in the next decade should administrations neglect to implement further measures to safeguard them.

It claims the most significant dangers come from logging, extraction or drilling for crude. Uncontacted groups are highly vulnerable to common illness—consequently, the report notes a danger is caused by contact with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers looking for clicks.

In recent times, members of the tribe have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a angling hamlet of several households, located atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the nearest town by canoe.

The territory is not classified as a preserved reserve for remote communities, and deforestation operations work here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the sound of heavy equipment can be heard continuously, and the community are seeing their forest damaged and ruined.

Among the locals, residents say they are divided. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess deep regard for their “relatives” who live in the woodland and wish to safeguard them.

“Let them live in their own way, we can't change their culture. This is why we preserve our separation,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the community's way of life, the danger of conflict and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the community to illnesses they have no resistance to.

While we were in the village, the group appeared again. Letitia, a young mother with a young daughter, was in the woodland gathering food when she detected them.

“We heard shouting, shouts from others, numerous of them. As though there were a crowd calling out,” she informed us.

It was the first time she had come across the tribe and she escaped. Subsequently, her head was continually pounding from fear.

“Because there are deforestation crews and operations destroying the woodland they're running away, maybe because of dread and they come in proximity to us,” she explained. “We are uncertain what their response may be towards us. That is the thing that scares me.”

In 2022, two loggers were confronted by the group while catching fish. A single person was hit by an projectile to the stomach. He survived, but the other person was located dead after several days with multiple injuries in his frame.

The Peruvian government has a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it prohibited to initiate contact with them.

The policy was first adopted in the neighboring country after decades of advocacy by community representatives, who observed that first contact with secluded communities lead to entire groups being wiped out by disease, destitution and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru came into contact with the broader society, half of their community perished within a few years. A decade later, the Muruhanua community suffered the same fate.

“Remote tribes are highly susceptible—in terms of health, any exposure might introduce illnesses, and even the most common illnesses may wipe them out,” says an advocate from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or disruption could be very harmful to their way of life and well-being as a society.”

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