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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny clearing within in the of Peru rainforest when he detected sounds drawing near through the dense woodland.

He realized that he stood surrounded, and froze.

“One person stood, pointing using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he became aware of my presence and I started to flee.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a local to these itinerant tribe, who reject interaction with foreigners.

A recent study issued by a rights group claims there are a minimum of 196 of what it calls “remote communities” remaining in the world. This tribe is considered to be the largest. The report says a significant portion of these groups might be decimated within ten years unless authorities neglect to implement further to protect them.

The report asserts the biggest risks stem from logging, mining or operations for petroleum. Remote communities are exceptionally vulnerable to common illness—consequently, the report notes a threat is caused by contact with religious missionaries and online personalities seeking clicks.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from residents.

This settlement is a angling community of seven or eight clans, sitting elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the of Peru Amazon, half a day from the closest town by boat.

This region is not classified as a protected area for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations operate here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the noise of industrial tools can be noticed continuously, and the community are observing their woodland disrupted and destroyed.

Among the locals, inhabitants say they are torn. They dread the tribal weapons but they also possess strong respect for their “kin” dwelling in the forest and want to protect them.

“Let them live in their own way, we are unable to change their culture. That's why we keep our distance,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the community's way of life, the risk of aggression and the chance that deforestation crews might subject the Mashco Piro to diseases they have no defense to.

At the time in the village, the Mashco Piro appeared again. A young mother, a resident with a toddler daughter, was in the forest gathering produce when she noticed them.

“We heard shouting, cries from people, many of them. As if there were a crowd calling out,” she informed us.

That was the first time she had encountered the group and she fled. Subsequently, her thoughts was still racing from anxiety.

“Because operate loggers and firms cutting down the forest they are fleeing, maybe out of fear and they come close to us,” she explained. “It is unclear how they will behave towards us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the tribe while catching fish. One man was wounded by an bow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the other person was discovered dead subsequently with several arrow wounds in his body.

The Peruvian government maintains a strategy of no engagement with secluded communities, establishing it as prohibited to initiate encounters with them.

The policy originated in a nearby nation following many years of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who noted that initial contact with isolated people resulted to entire groups being decimated by sickness, poverty and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country first encountered with the broader society, 50% of their people perished within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the identical outcome.

“Remote tribes are very susceptible—epidemiologically, any contact may transmit sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses may wipe them out,” explains a representative from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption may be extremely detrimental to their existence and well-being as a group.”

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