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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny open space deep in the of Peru jungle when he heard movements drawing near through the dense woodland.

He realized that he stood surrounded, and halted.

“One person was standing, aiming using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he became aware I was here and I began to escape.”

He ended up confronting members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a neighbor to these nomadic tribe, who shun engagement with outsiders.

A new study from a rights organization states exist no fewer than 196 described as “remote communities” in existence worldwide. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the most numerous. It says a significant portion of these groups could be eliminated within ten years unless authorities neglect to implement additional actions to defend them.

The report asserts the most significant dangers stem from deforestation, extraction or drilling for oil. Isolated tribes are exceptionally at risk to ordinary sickness—as such, the report states a danger is presented by exposure with religious missionaries and online personalities looking for attention.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, based on accounts from inhabitants.

The village is a angling hamlet of several households, sitting elevated on the edges of the local river deep within the of Peru Amazon, half a day from the nearest village by boat.

The territory is not designated as a protected reserve for remote communities, and logging companies function here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the racket of industrial tools can be heard continuously, and the tribe members are observing their woodland disturbed and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants state they are torn. They fear the projectiles but they hold profound regard for their “kin” who live in the woodland and wish to defend them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we must not change their traditions. That's why we keep our separation,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the community's way of life, the threat of violence and the chance that timber workers might expose the community to illnesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the community, the Mashco Piro made themselves known again. Letitia, a woman with a young girl, was in the woodland gathering produce when she heard them.

“We heard calls, sounds from others, a large number of them. As if there were a whole group calling out,” she told us.

It was the initial occasion she had encountered the group and she fled. An hour later, her head was still pounding from anxiety.

“Since there are loggers and operations destroying the forest they're running away, maybe out of fear and they come close to us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. That is the thing that scares me.”

In 2022, two individuals were assaulted by the tribe while catching fish. One was hit by an bow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the other man was found lifeless after several days with several arrow wounds in his body.

The Peruvian government has a policy of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, making it illegal to initiate encounters with them.

The policy was first adopted in a nearby nation after decades of lobbying by community representatives, who observed that first interaction with secluded communities resulted to entire communities being decimated by illness, hardship and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the broader society, a significant portion of their people died within a few years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people suffered the identical outcome.

“Remote tribes are very at risk—epidemiologically, any exposure could spread sicknesses, and including the simplest ones may wipe them out,” states an advocate from a tribal support group. “Culturally too, any exposure or interference may be very harmful to their way of life and survival as a group.”

For local residents of {