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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest open space within in the of Peru Amazon when he detected movements drawing near through the thick woodland.

It dawned on him that he stood surrounded, and froze.

“A single individual was standing, aiming with an arrow,” he states. “Unexpectedly he noticed that I was present and I started to escape.”

He had come confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the small community of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a local to these itinerant people, who reject interaction with outsiders.

A new document issued by a rights group claims remain no fewer than 196 of what it calls “remote communities” left worldwide. The group is thought to be the largest. The study states half of these communities could be decimated in the next decade should administrations fail to take more to protect them.

It argues the biggest dangers are from logging, digging or operations for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to ordinary disease—as such, it states a danger is presented by exposure with religious missionaries and social media influencers looking for attention.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to residents.

The village is a angling community of a handful of families, sitting high on the shores of the local river in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, a ten-hour journey from the closest town by canoe.

The territory is not designated as a safeguarded reserve for isolated tribes, and logging companies function here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the sound of industrial tools can be noticed day and night, and the tribe members are seeing their jungle damaged and ruined.

Among the locals, residents state they are conflicted. They are afraid of the projectiles but they hold strong admiration for their “kin” residing in the jungle and wish to protect them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we are unable to change their culture. For this reason we maintain our separation,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the community's way of life, the danger of conflict and the chance that deforestation crews might subject the community to diseases they have no defense to.

During a visit in the community, the group appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a toddler daughter, was in the jungle gathering fruit when she detected them.

“We detected cries, cries from individuals, a large number of them. As if there was a whole group calling out,” she told us.

It was the first instance she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she escaped. An hour later, her mind was still racing from fear.

“Because exist timber workers and firms destroying the jungle they're running away, possibly out of fear and they arrive close to us,” she stated. “It is unclear how they will behave to us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the group while angling. One man was struck by an bow to the stomach. He recovered, but the other person was found dead after several days with nine arrow wounds in his body.

Authorities in Peru maintains a strategy of non-contact with remote tribes, rendering it forbidden to commence contact with them.

This approach originated in a nearby nation after decades of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that initial exposure with isolated people resulted to entire groups being decimated by sickness, poverty and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country first encountered with the broader society, a significant portion of their population died within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly at risk—in terms of health, any contact may spread illnesses, and including the most common illnesses might decimate them,” states a representative from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any contact or disruption can be extremely detrimental to their existence and well-being as a group.”

For local residents of {