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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small open space deep in the of Peru rainforest when he noticed footsteps drawing near through the lush jungle.

He realized that he stood surrounded, and froze.

“One person stood, directing with an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he became aware I was here and I commenced to escape.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the small village of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbor to these nomadic people, who shun interaction with foreigners.

A new study by a advocacy group states there are no fewer than 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” remaining worldwide. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the biggest. It claims half of these tribes could be eliminated in the next decade should administrations neglect to implement additional actions to defend them.

It claims the biggest dangers stem from deforestation, mining or operations for oil. Remote communities are exceptionally vulnerable to basic sickness—therefore, the report says a danger is caused by exposure with proselytizers and social media influencers seeking attention.

In recent times, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by locals.

The village is a fishing community of several families, perched atop on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the most accessible village by canoe.

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

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the noise of industrial tools can be noticed continuously, and the community are observing their woodland damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, people report they are conflicted. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess deep respect for their “relatives” residing in the forest and want to safeguard them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we must not change their culture. This is why we preserve our space,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the community's way of life, the risk of aggression and the chance that timber workers might expose the community to diseases they have no defense to.

While we were in the community, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a toddler child, was in the woodland picking food when she noticed them.

“We heard calls, cries from individuals, many of them. As if there was a crowd shouting,” she informed us.

It was the initial occasion she had met the tribe and she fled. After sixty minutes, her head was continually pounding from terror.

“Since exist timber workers and firms cutting down the woodland they are fleeing, perhaps out of fear and they end up near us,” she explained. “We are uncertain what their response may be with us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

Recently, two loggers were confronted by the group while catching fish. A single person was hit by an bow to the stomach. He survived, but the second individual was found lifeless after several days with several arrow wounds in his frame.

The administration follows a approach of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, establishing it as prohibited to initiate encounters with them.

The strategy originated in Brazil following many years of campaigning by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that early contact with secluded communities could lead to entire communities being wiped out by sickness, poverty and hunger.

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

“Secluded communities are extremely vulnerable—in terms of health, any contact might introduce illnesses, and even the most common illnesses could decimate them,” explains a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any contact or interference can be very harmful to their way of life and health as a society.”

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