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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny open space far in the of Peru rainforest when he detected footsteps approaching through the lush woodland.

He became aware he was hemmed in, and halted.

“One person positioned, aiming using an arrow,” he states. “Unexpectedly he detected that I was present and I began to flee.”

He ended up face to face members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—residing in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbor to these nomadic individuals, who avoid interaction with outsiders.

An updated study issued by a advocacy organization states there are at least 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” in existence globally. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the most numerous. It says half of these tribes might be eliminated over the coming ten years should administrations neglect to implement more actions to defend them.

It claims the most significant dangers are from logging, digging or drilling for oil. Isolated tribes are highly vulnerable to common illness—as such, it states a danger is caused by contact with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators looking for engagement.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by inhabitants.

The village is a angling community of a handful of households, sitting atop on the edges of the local river in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the closest town by boat.

The territory is not recognised as a protected reserve for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations operate here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be noticed day and night, and the tribe members are observing their jungle damaged and destroyed.

Within the village, inhabitants state they are torn. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess strong respect for their “relatives” dwelling in the woodland and wish to defend them.

“Let them live as they live, we can't change their way of life. That's why we preserve our space,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of violence and the likelihood that timber workers might expose the community to illnesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the community, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia, a young mother with a two-year-old child, was in the woodland gathering food when she heard them.

“There were shouting, shouts from others, a large number of them. As if there was a crowd shouting,” she told us.

It was the initial occasion she had come across the Mashco Piro and she escaped. An hour later, her head was still racing from fear.

“Because exist deforestation crews and operations clearing the jungle they are fleeing, possibly because of dread and they arrive close to us,” she said. “We are uncertain what their response may be to us. That is the thing that scares me.”

Recently, two individuals were attacked by the tribe while fishing. One man was wounded by an arrow to the gut. He survived, but the other person was discovered dead subsequently with nine injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government maintains a strategy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, establishing it as forbidden to initiate contact with them.

This approach originated in a nearby nation after decades of campaigning by community representatives, who observed that initial exposure with remote tribes lead to entire communities being eliminated by illness, hardship and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the world outside, 50% of their community perished within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua community faced the similar destiny.

“Secluded communities are extremely at risk—epidemiologically, any exposure might spread illnesses, and even the basic infections could eliminate them,” states Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “In cultural terms, any contact or interference can be very harmful to their life and health as a society.”

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