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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small glade deep in the of Peru jungle when he detected sounds approaching through the lush woodland.

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

“One person was standing, directing using an projectile,” he states. “Unexpectedly he detected I was here and I started to flee.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a local to these wandering tribe, who reject interaction with strangers.

A new study from a advocacy organisation indicates there are no fewer than 196 described as “isolated tribes” remaining in the world. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the largest. It states 50% of these groups could be wiped out within ten years if governments fail to take more actions to defend them.

It argues the biggest threats are from timber harvesting, extraction or exploration for oil. Remote communities are exceptionally at risk to ordinary disease—consequently, the study notes a risk is caused by contact with proselytizers and social media influencers seeking attention.

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

Nueva Oceania is a fishing community of a handful of households, perched high on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway in the center of the of Peru Amazon, 10 hours from the closest town by canoe.

The area is not designated as a preserved reserve for remote communities, and logging companies work here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the sound of logging machinery can be detected around the clock, and the community are seeing their jungle disrupted and ruined.

Within the village, inhabitants say they are torn. They fear the tribal weapons but they hold strong regard for their “kin” residing in the forest and wish to protect them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we must not modify their culture. That's why we preserve our distance,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the tribe's survival, the risk of violence and the likelihood that deforestation crews might subject the tribe to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the community, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a two-year-old girl, was in the woodland gathering fruit when she noticed them.

“We heard cries, cries from others, numerous of them. As if it was a whole group shouting,” she informed us.

It was the initial occasion she had come across the tribe and she fled. An hour later, her thoughts was still pounding from anxiety.

“Because there are loggers and operations destroying the jungle they are fleeing, possibly due to terror and they arrive near us,” she said. “It is unclear how they will behave towards us. This is what terrifies me.”

In 2022, two loggers were confronted by the tribe while fishing. A single person was hit by an projectile to the abdomen. He lived, but the other man was discovered deceased subsequently with multiple injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government maintains a approach of no engagement with secluded communities, establishing it as prohibited to commence interactions with them.

The policy was first adopted in Brazil subsequent to prolonged of campaigning by community representatives, who saw that first interaction with isolated people lead to entire communities being wiped out by sickness, poverty and hunger.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the broader society, half of their people perished within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are very susceptible—epidemiologically, any contact may introduce illnesses, and even the basic infections could eliminate them,” says a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any interaction or disruption can be highly damaging to their existence and survival as a group.”

For local residents of {