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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest open space within in the of Peru jungle when he detected movements coming closer through the lush forest.

He became aware that he stood hemmed in, and froze.

“A single individual stood, aiming using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he detected I was here and I began to flee.”

He ended up face to face the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—residing in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbour to these nomadic tribe, who shun contact with foreigners.

A recent document issued by a human rights group claims there are a minimum of 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” in existence globally. This tribe is thought to be the largest. It claims half of these communities could be decimated in the next decade should administrations don't do more actions to defend them.

The report asserts the most significant risks stem from logging, extraction or exploration for crude. Remote communities are exceptionally at risk to basic sickness—therefore, the report states a risk is presented by interaction with religious missionaries and online personalities in pursuit of engagement.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by inhabitants.

This settlement is a fishing community of several households, sitting atop on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the closest town by watercraft.

This region is not classified as a protected reserve for remote communities, and deforestation operations work here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the noise of heavy equipment can be detected day and night, and the community are witnessing their woodland damaged and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants say they are torn. They fear the tribal weapons but they hold deep admiration for their “kin” dwelling in the woodland and want to safeguard them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we can't change their way of life. This is why we maintain our separation,” explains Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of conflict and the likelihood that deforestation crews might introduce the community to illnesses they have no defense to.

While we were in the community, the tribe appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a toddler daughter, was in the forest collecting fruit when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, sounds from others, a large number of them. As if there were a large gathering yelling,” she told us.

That was the first instance she had come across the group and she fled. After sixty minutes, her thoughts was persistently racing from fear.

“Since exist timber workers and companies cutting down the jungle they are fleeing, perhaps due to terror and they end up near us,” she explained. “We don't know how they might react with us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the tribe while angling. One was struck by an bow to the gut. He lived, but the second individual was found lifeless after several days with nine puncture marks in his physique.

Authorities in Peru has a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, making it illegal to start encounters with them.

This approach originated in Brazil subsequent to prolonged of advocacy by community representatives, who saw that first exposure with remote tribes resulted to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, poverty and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in the country came into contact with the world outside, 50% of their people succumbed within a few years. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely susceptible—from a disease perspective, any interaction might spread illnesses, and even the most common illnesses could eliminate them,” says an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any contact or intrusion can be very harmful to their existence and survival as a society.”

For those living nearby of {