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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest open space within in the of Peru rainforest when he heard footsteps coming closer through the lush woodland.

He realized that he stood encircled, and froze.

“One person was standing, aiming with an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he noticed of my presence and I started to run.”

He had come encountering members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—residing in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a neighbor to these nomadic people, who shun interaction with strangers.

An updated document from a advocacy organization claims exist a minimum of 196 described as “remote communities” left in the world. This tribe is believed to be the biggest. The report states a significant portion of these tribes might be decimated over the coming ten years should administrations fail to take more actions to defend them.

It argues the most significant dangers stem from timber harvesting, extraction or exploration for oil. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally susceptible to common sickness—therefore, the report states a risk is posed by contact with proselytizers and social media influencers seeking engagement.

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

Nueva Oceania is a fishing community of seven or eight families, located atop on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible town by boat.

The territory is not designated as a preserved reserve for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas reports that, at times, the noise of industrial tools can be detected continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their forest damaged and ruined.

In Nueva Oceania, residents state they are torn. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they also have strong regard for their “brothers” who live in the jungle and desire to protect them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we are unable to change their culture. This is why we keep our space,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the community's way of life, the danger of conflict and the likelihood that loggers might expose the tribe to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the community, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a young girl, was in the jungle picking food when she noticed them.

“There were shouting, shouts from others, numerous of them. As though there was a large gathering yelling,” she shared with us.

It was the first instance she had met the Mashco Piro and she fled. Subsequently, her head was continually racing from terror.

“Because exist deforestation crews and firms clearing the forest they're running away, perhaps due to terror and they come close to us,” she said. “We are uncertain what their response may be with us. That's what frightens me.”

Recently, two individuals were confronted by the group while catching fish. One was hit by an bow to the gut. He lived, but the second individual was located lifeless subsequently with several injuries in his body.

The administration maintains a strategy of no engagement with secluded communities, establishing it as illegal to start contact with them.

The strategy was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that first interaction with secluded communities could lead to entire communities being decimated by disease, hardship and hunger.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country made initial contact with the world outside, half of their population perished within a few years. A decade later, the Muruhanua people suffered the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are highly vulnerable—in terms of health, any interaction could spread diseases, and including the most common illnesses may eliminate them,” explains an advocate from a tribal support group. “Culturally too, any contact or intrusion can be very harmful to their life and health as a community.”

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