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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest glade deep in the Peruvian Amazon when he detected sounds approaching through the dense forest.

He became aware that he had been encircled, and stood still.

“One stood, directing using an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he detected of my presence and I started to flee.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the small village of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a local to these nomadic tribe, who shun interaction with foreigners.

A new document from a human rights organisation indicates remain at least 196 termed “remote communities” left in the world. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the largest. It says 50% of these tribes may be decimated over the coming ten years unless authorities fail to take more to protect them.

It claims the most significant risks are from timber harvesting, extraction or drilling for crude. Remote communities are exceptionally vulnerable to common disease—consequently, the report notes a risk is posed by contact with religious missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of clicks.

Recently, members of the tribe have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from locals.

This settlement is a angling village of seven or eight families, located atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, a ten-hour journey from the closest town by boat.

This region is not recognised as a preserved zone for isolated tribes, and logging companies function here.

Tomas says that, at times, the sound of industrial tools can be noticed around the clock, and the tribe members are witnessing their forest disrupted and destroyed.

Among the locals, inhabitants say they are conflicted. They dread the tribal weapons but they also have deep regard for their “brothers” residing in the forest and wish to protect them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we can't modify their way of life. That's why we maintain our distance,” explains Tomas.

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

While we were in the settlement, the group appeared again. Letitia, a woman with a two-year-old girl, was in the forest picking fruit when she noticed them.

“We detected cries, shouts from individuals, numerous of them. As if it was a large gathering shouting,” she informed us.

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

“As there are deforestation crews and firms destroying the jungle they are fleeing, perhaps out of fear and they arrive near us,” she stated. “It is unclear what their response may be to us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were attacked by the Mashco Piro while catching fish. One man was hit by an arrow to the abdomen. He lived, but the second individual was found deceased subsequently with multiple arrow wounds in his physique.

Authorities in Peru follows a approach of non-contact with isolated people, rendering it illegal to start encounters with them.

The strategy began in Brazil after decades of advocacy by community representatives, who observed that early contact with secluded communities lead to entire communities being decimated by disease, poverty and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country came into contact with the world outside, a significant portion of their population perished within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very vulnerable—from a disease perspective, any interaction might spread diseases, and even the most common illnesses might decimate them,” states Issrail Aquisse from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption may be very harmful to their existence and survival as a group.”

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