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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest open space within in the Peruvian rainforest when he heard movements approaching through the dense forest.

He realized that he stood hemmed in, and froze.

“One stood, directing with an projectile,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he became aware I was here and I started to run.”

He ended up encountering the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—was virtually a neighbour to these nomadic individuals, who shun interaction with outsiders.

A new document from a human rights group states remain no fewer than 196 of what it calls “remote communities” left globally. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the largest. The report says 50% of these tribes may be decimated over the coming ten years unless authorities don't do more actions to defend them.

It claims the biggest risks stem from deforestation, mining or exploration for crude. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to ordinary disease—consequently, the report states a risk is caused by interaction with religious missionaries and online personalities in pursuit of clicks.

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

Nueva Oceania is a angling hamlet of several families, perched atop on the banks of the local river in the center of the Peruvian rainforest, 10 hours from the closest settlement by boat.

This region is not classified as a protected area for remote communities, and timber firms function here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the sound of logging machinery can be detected day and night, and the tribe members are observing their forest disturbed and destroyed.

Within the village, people state they are torn. They dread the tribal weapons but they hold deep regard for their “kin” dwelling in the woodland and wish to defend them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we can't alter their traditions. That's why we preserve our distance,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the tribe's survival, the threat of aggression and the possibility that loggers might introduce the tribe to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the village, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a young daughter, was in the forest collecting produce when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from individuals, a large number of them. As though there was a large gathering calling out,” she shared with us.

This marked the first time she had come across the group and she ran. After sixty minutes, her head was persistently racing from anxiety.

“Since exist loggers and operations clearing the jungle they're running away, possibly due to terror and they arrive in proximity to us,” she stated. “We don't know how they might react to us. This is what scares me.”

Two years ago, two loggers were confronted by the group while angling. One man was hit by an arrow to the stomach. He lived, but the other person was located dead after several days with several injuries in his frame.

Authorities in Peru has a policy of non-contact with remote tribes, making it illegal to initiate contact with them.

The strategy was first adopted in Brazil following many years of advocacy by community representatives, who noted that first exposure with remote tribes resulted to entire communities being eliminated by illness, hardship and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru made initial contact with the outside world, 50% of their population perished within a few years. A decade later, the Muruhanua people suffered the similar destiny.

“Secluded communities are highly at risk—from a disease perspective, any exposure might introduce illnesses, and even the basic infections might eliminate them,” states an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or disruption could be highly damaging to their existence and health as a community.”

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