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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small open space deep in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed footsteps coming closer through the thick woodland.

It dawned on him he was encircled, and froze.

“A single individual positioned, directing using an bow and arrow,” he states. “Unexpectedly he detected that I was present and I began to escape.”

He ended up face to face the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a neighbour to these nomadic people, who reject contact with foreigners.

A new study from a rights organisation states exist a minimum of 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” left in the world. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the most numerous. The report says half of these communities could be wiped out over the coming ten years unless authorities neglect to implement additional to protect them.

The report asserts the greatest threats stem from timber harvesting, extraction or operations for petroleum. Remote communities are extremely at risk to basic sickness—consequently, it says a danger is posed by exposure with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of clicks.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by inhabitants.

This settlement is a angling village of seven or eight families, sitting elevated on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian rainforest, 10 hours from the most accessible village by watercraft.

This region is not recognised as a preserved reserve for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas says that, at times, the noise of logging machinery can be heard continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are seeing their forest disturbed and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, people report they are torn. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have deep admiration for their “brothers” residing in the forest and want to defend them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we are unable to alter their culture. That's why we keep our distance,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the community's way of life, the threat of violence and the chance that deforestation crews might introduce the community to diseases they have no defense to.

During a visit in the settlement, the group appeared again. A young mother, a resident with a toddler girl, was in the forest gathering fruit when she heard them.

“There were cries, cries from people, numerous of them. As if there were a crowd calling out,” she informed us.

That was the first time she had met the Mashco Piro and she ran. After sixty minutes, her head was persistently racing from fear.

“Because there are deforestation crews and firms destroying the woodland they're running away, possibly due to terror and they arrive in proximity to us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they will behave with us. This is what terrifies me.”

In 2022, two loggers were assaulted by the group while catching fish. A single person was wounded by an projectile to the gut. He recovered, but the second individual was found lifeless days later with several injuries in his frame.

The Peruvian government follows a strategy of non-contact with secluded communities, making it forbidden to initiate interactions with them.

This approach was first adopted in the neighboring country after decades of lobbying by community representatives, who noted that early contact with isolated people could lead to entire communities being decimated by illness, poverty and malnutrition.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country came into contact with the broader society, half of their population perished within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua community faced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are highly vulnerable—in terms of health, any exposure might introduce sicknesses, and even the simplest ones may decimate them,” states a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any interaction or interference could be extremely detrimental to their life and health as a society.”

For local residents of {