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Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a small glade deep in the of Peru jungle when he detected sounds coming closer through the lush forest.

It dawned on him he was surrounded, and stood still.

“One person was standing, aiming using an bow and arrow,” he states. “And somehow he became aware that I was present and I started to run.”

He found himself face to face members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a neighbor to these nomadic tribe, who reject contact with foreigners.

An updated study by a rights group states remain a minimum of 196 described as “isolated tribes” in existence in the world. This tribe is considered to be the biggest. The report says 50% of these communities might be decimated within ten years unless authorities fail to take additional actions to defend them.

The report asserts the most significant threats come from deforestation, extraction or operations for oil. Remote communities are extremely vulnerable to ordinary sickness—therefore, the study says a danger is presented by contact with proselytizers and social media influencers looking for clicks.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by locals.

Nueva Oceania is a angling hamlet of a handful of clans, sitting atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu River deep within the Peruvian rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible settlement by canoe.

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

Tomas says that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be heard day and night, and the tribe members are seeing their jungle damaged and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, people state they are conflicted. They fear the tribal weapons but they also have strong regard for their “brothers” who live in the forest and desire to safeguard them.

“Let them live as they live, we must not change their way of life. This is why we maintain our separation,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the community's way of life, the danger of aggression and the possibility that loggers might introduce the community to illnesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the village, the group appeared again. A young mother, a young mother with a two-year-old child, was in the forest picking fruit when she heard them.

“We heard calls, cries from individuals, many of them. Like there was a whole group calling out,” she shared with us.

That was the initial occasion she had met the group and she fled. After sixty minutes, her thoughts was continually racing from anxiety.

“Since there are deforestation crews and firms clearing the jungle they are fleeing, maybe because of dread and they end up near us,” she explained. “We are uncertain what their response may be to us. That is the thing that scares me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the group while catching fish. One man was wounded by an arrow to the stomach. He lived, but the second individual was located deceased subsequently with several puncture marks in his physique.

The Peruvian government has a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as forbidden to start contact with them.

This approach was first adopted in Brazil after decades of advocacy by community representatives, who saw that initial contact with secluded communities resulted to whole populations being wiped out by disease, hardship and hunger.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country made initial contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their people succumbed within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely at risk—in terms of health, any contact may introduce sicknesses, and even the basic infections could eliminate them,” states an advocate from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any contact or interference could be very harmful to their life and health as a community.”

For those living nearby of {