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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest glade deep in the of Peru rainforest when he heard sounds coming closer through the thick woodland.

It dawned on him that he had been encircled, and stood still.

“One positioned, aiming using an projectile,” he remembers. “And somehow he detected I was here and I began to escape.”

He had come confronting members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the small settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a neighbour to these nomadic people, who reject interaction with foreigners.

A recent document by a advocacy organisation indicates remain at least 196 described as “isolated tribes” left worldwide. The group is believed to be the biggest. The report claims a significant portion of these groups could be eliminated within ten years unless authorities don't do additional to protect them.

It claims the biggest threats stem from logging, extraction or operations for petroleum. Isolated tribes are extremely vulnerable to ordinary illness—as such, it says a danger is caused by interaction with proselytizers and social media influencers looking for attention.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from locals.

The village is a fishermen's hamlet of several families, perched high on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the of Peru Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible settlement by watercraft.

This region is not recognised as a protected zone for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations work here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the noise of heavy equipment can be heard day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their forest damaged and devastated.

Within the village, residents state they are conflicted. They dread the tribal weapons but they also possess deep respect for their “brothers” residing in the forest and desire to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we must not modify their way of life. That's why we keep our separation,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the tribe's survival, the danger of conflict and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the tribe to diseases they have no resistance to.

While we were in the community, the Mashco Piro appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a two-year-old child, was in the jungle picking food when she heard them.

“There were calls, sounds from people, a large number of them. As though there were a whole group calling out,” she shared with us.

That was the first instance she had met the tribe and she escaped. Subsequently, her head was persistently pounding from fear.

“Since operate loggers and companies clearing the woodland they're running away, perhaps because of dread and they end up near us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. That is the thing that terrifies me.”

In 2022, two loggers were attacked by the tribe while catching fish. One was hit by an arrow to the abdomen. He survived, but the other person was discovered deceased after several days with several injuries in his body.

The administration maintains a strategy of no engagement with secluded communities, making it illegal to initiate encounters with them.

The strategy began in a nearby nation following many years of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that first exposure with isolated people lead to entire groups being decimated by disease, hardship and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru came into contact with the world outside, 50% of their community perished within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua community suffered the identical outcome.

“Remote tribes are highly at risk—from a disease perspective, any contact might introduce illnesses, and even the simplest ones may eliminate them,” says Issrail Aquisse from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or intrusion may be highly damaging to their way of life and well-being as a community.”

For local residents of {