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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny glade within in the of Peru rainforest when he detected sounds approaching through the dense woodland.

He realized that he had been surrounded, and froze.

“One stood, aiming with an arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he became aware of my presence and I commenced to escape.”

He had come confronting members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbor to these nomadic tribe, who reject engagement with foreigners.

An updated document issued by a human rights organisation indicates exist at least 196 termed “remote communities” left globally. The group is believed to be the most numerous. The report says 50% of these communities might be eliminated over the coming ten years should administrations fail to take more measures to safeguard them.

It argues the greatest threats stem from deforestation, extraction or drilling for oil. Isolated tribes are extremely susceptible to common illness—as such, the report says a risk is posed by contact with evangelical missionaries and online personalities seeking engagement.

Lately, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, based on accounts from residents.

Nueva Oceania is a angling community of seven or eight households, sitting elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian jungle, a ten-hour journey from the closest town by boat.

The area is not designated as a protected reserve for uncontacted groups, and logging companies work here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the noise of industrial tools can be detected day and night, and the community are seeing their jungle damaged and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, residents report they are torn. They dread the projectiles but they also have deep respect for their “brothers” who live in the woodland and desire to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we can't change their traditions. This is why we maintain our separation,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the community's way of life, the risk of conflict and the possibility that deforestation crews might introduce the community to sicknesses they have no defense to.

While we were in the village, the Mashco Piro made themselves known again. A young mother, a woman with a toddler daughter, was in the woodland picking produce when she heard them.

“We heard cries, cries from others, a large number of them. As though there were a whole group calling out,” she shared with us.

This marked the first time she had encountered the tribe and she escaped. An hour later, her head was still racing from fear.

“Because there are deforestation crews and companies clearing the jungle they are escaping, maybe due to terror and they come in proximity to us,” she explained. “We are uncertain what their response may be with us. That's what terrifies me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the tribe while catching fish. A single person was wounded by an arrow to the abdomen. He survived, but the second individual was discovered lifeless subsequently with several injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as prohibited to initiate encounters with them.

The policy was first adopted in Brazil after decades of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who noted that early contact with isolated people could lead to whole populations being decimated by illness, destitution and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in Peru came into contact with the world outside, 50% of their people died within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very vulnerable—from a disease perspective, any contact could introduce sicknesses, and including the most common illnesses may wipe them out,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any contact or interference may be very harmful to their existence and survival as a society.”

For those living nearby of {