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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small glade deep in the Peruvian jungle when he detected movements coming closer through the lush forest.

He realized that he had been encircled, and stood still.

“One stood, aiming using an bow and arrow,” he states. “Unexpectedly he noticed of my presence and I began to escape.”

He had come confronting members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbour to these wandering people, who shun contact with outsiders.

A recent report from a human rights group states exist at least 196 termed “remote communities” in existence globally. This tribe is believed to be the most numerous. It says half of these tribes may be decimated in the next decade unless authorities don't do more to protect them.

The report asserts the most significant threats come from deforestation, digging or operations for oil. Uncontacted groups are extremely susceptible to common sickness—consequently, it states a risk is posed by interaction with evangelical missionaries and online personalities looking for clicks.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to inhabitants.

This settlement is a angling hamlet of a handful of clans, sitting atop on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the nearest town by boat.

The territory is not recognised as a safeguarded zone for remote communities, and logging companies function here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the noise of heavy equipment can be detected continuously, and the tribe members are observing their forest disturbed and devastated.

Within the village, people state they are divided. They are afraid of the projectiles but they hold profound respect for their “brothers” residing in the woodland and want to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live according to their traditions, we are unable to modify their traditions. For this reason we preserve our distance,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the community's way of life, the threat of aggression and the chance that timber workers might introduce the community to illnesses they have no immunity to.

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

“We heard calls, shouts from individuals, numerous of them. Like it was a large gathering yelling,” she told us.

It was the first time she had come across the tribe and she ran. An hour later, her head was continually pounding from anxiety.

“Because exist deforestation crews and firms destroying the jungle they are fleeing, possibly due to terror and they arrive in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they will behave with us. This is what terrifies me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were attacked by the Mashco Piro while fishing. A single person was struck by an bow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the other person was discovered dead days later with multiple injuries in his frame.

The administration has a approach of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it illegal to commence encounters with them.

This approach began in Brazil after decades of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that initial exposure with secluded communities resulted to entire communities being eliminated by illness, poverty and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in the country made initial contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their community perished within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua community experienced the identical outcome.

“Remote tribes are highly susceptible—from a disease perspective, any interaction may transmit diseases, and including the simplest ones might eliminate them,” states an advocate from a tribal support group. “Culturally too, any interaction or interference can be highly damaging to their way of life and health as a society.”

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