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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest glade deep in the Peruvian Amazon when he noticed movements approaching through the dense jungle.

He became aware he was hemmed in, and froze.

“One person positioned, directing with an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he detected I was here and I began to flee.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the small community of Nueva Oceania—was virtually a neighbor to these itinerant individuals, who avoid engagement with outsiders.

An updated report issued by a human rights organization states exist at least 196 described as “remote communities” left worldwide. This tribe is believed to be the largest. The study claims 50% of these tribes may be decimated within ten years if governments fail to take more to protect them.

It argues the greatest threats come from logging, extraction or drilling for crude. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally susceptible to common illness—therefore, the study notes a threat is presented by interaction with proselytizers and social media influencers seeking clicks.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing community of several families, located elevated on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian jungle, 10 hours from the nearest town by canoe.

The area is not classified as a preserved reserve for remote communities, and timber firms operate here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the noise of logging machinery can be detected continuously, and the community are observing their forest disrupted and destroyed.

In Nueva Oceania, people say they are torn. They dread the tribal weapons but they hold strong regard for their “kin” who live in the woodland and wish to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we can't alter their traditions. For this reason we keep our distance,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of aggression and the chance that deforestation crews might expose the tribe to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

While we were in the settlement, the group made themselves known again. Letitia, a woman with a toddler child, was in the jungle collecting fruit when she detected them.

“We detected shouting, sounds from individuals, many of them. As though it was a crowd shouting,” she informed us.

This marked the first time she had come across the tribe and she ran. After sixty minutes, her head was still throbbing from terror.

“Because operate deforestation crews and firms destroying the jungle they are fleeing, possibly because of dread and they end up close to us,” she explained. “We are uncertain what their response may be with us. This is what terrifies me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the tribe while catching fish. One man was wounded by an projectile to the stomach. He recovered, but the other person was found lifeless after several days with several injuries in his body.

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

This approach began in Brazil subsequent to prolonged of advocacy by community representatives, who observed that initial interaction with remote tribes lead to entire groups being wiped out by illness, hardship and malnutrition.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in Peru first encountered with the outside world, 50% of their population died within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community faced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very vulnerable—in terms of health, any exposure may transmit illnesses, and even the simplest ones could eliminate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any interaction or interference could be highly damaging to their existence and well-being as a group.”

For those living nearby of {