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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small open space far in the Peruvian Amazon when he detected movements coming closer through the dense forest.

He realized he was hemmed in, and froze.

“A single individual stood, directing using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he noticed I was here and I started to escape.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the small village of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a local to these itinerant individuals, who avoid interaction with strangers.

An updated report from a rights organisation indicates remain a minimum of 196 of what it calls “remote communities” left worldwide. This tribe is thought to be the largest. The report says half of these communities might be wiped out over the coming ten years unless authorities don't do more actions to defend them.

It argues the most significant risks come from logging, extraction or exploration for petroleum. Remote communities are extremely vulnerable to basic sickness—consequently, the study states a threat is caused by interaction with religious missionaries and social media influencers seeking engagement.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been venturing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing village of a handful of families, sitting elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the Peruvian jungle, 10 hours from the closest village by watercraft.

This region is not recognised as a safeguarded zone for remote communities, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas says that, at times, the sound of heavy equipment can be noticed around the clock, and the tribe members are observing their jungle disrupted and ruined.

Within the village, residents report they are divided. They fear the tribal weapons but they also have profound admiration for their “relatives” residing in the forest and want to protect them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we can't modify their traditions. That's why we keep our space,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the community's way of life, the danger of aggression and the chance that deforestation crews might subject the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the community, the group made their presence felt again. A young mother, a young mother with a young girl, was in the woodland gathering food when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, sounds from people, many of them. Like it was a large gathering shouting,” she shared with us.

This marked the initial occasion she had come across the Mashco Piro and she escaped. An hour later, her head was still pounding from terror.

“Since there are loggers and firms destroying the woodland they are escaping, perhaps because of dread and they end up near us,” she stated. “It is unclear what their response may be with us. This is what scares me.”

Recently, two individuals were assaulted by the tribe while fishing. A single person was wounded by an projectile to the abdomen. He lived, but the other man was located lifeless after several days with several puncture marks in his physique.

Authorities in Peru has a strategy of non-contact with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to commence interactions with them.

This approach was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that early exposure with secluded communities resulted to whole populations being eliminated by illness, poverty and hunger.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country first encountered with the outside world, half of their people succumbed within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely at risk—in terms of health, any contact may spread sicknesses, and even the basic infections might eliminate them,” says an advocate from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or intrusion could be highly damaging to their way of life and health as a community.”

For local residents of {