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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny open space within in the of Peru rainforest when he detected sounds drawing near through the dense forest.

He realized he was hemmed in, and froze.

“One person was standing, pointing with an arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he became aware I was here and I commenced to escape.”

He ended up encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a local to these nomadic tribe, who shun interaction with strangers.

A new document from a human rights organisation claims there are no fewer than 196 termed “isolated tribes” in existence worldwide. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the most numerous. The study says half of these communities could be decimated over the coming ten years if governments don't do additional actions to defend them.

It claims the biggest dangers stem from deforestation, extraction or operations for crude. Uncontacted groups are extremely vulnerable to common illness—consequently, it states a risk is presented by exposure with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of clicks.

Recently, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, according to locals.

This settlement is a angling hamlet of seven or eight families, located high on the banks of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the Peruvian rainforest, 10 hours from the nearest village by canoe.

The area is not classified as a protected zone for isolated tribes, and logging companies operate here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the sound of heavy equipment can be detected continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their woodland disrupted and ruined.

In Nueva Oceania, inhabitants report they are divided. They fear the tribal weapons but they hold strong respect for their “kin” residing in the jungle and desire to protect them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we are unable to alter their culture. This is why we maintain our space,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the community's way of life, the risk of aggression and the likelihood that deforestation crews might expose the community to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the community, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a two-year-old girl, was in the jungle gathering produce when she detected them.

“We heard shouting, shouts from people, many of them. As though there was a whole group shouting,” she shared with us.

That was the first instance she had come across the Mashco Piro and she fled. Subsequently, her thoughts was persistently throbbing from fear.

“As exist timber workers and companies cutting down the woodland they are fleeing, maybe because of dread and they come near us,” she stated. “It is unclear how they might react to us. That's what frightens me.”

In 2022, two loggers were attacked by the group while catching fish. A single person was hit by an bow to the stomach. He recovered, but the other man was discovered lifeless subsequently with several arrow wounds in his body.

The administration maintains a approach of no engagement with secluded communities, making it prohibited to start encounters with them.

This approach began in the neighboring country after decades of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who saw that early interaction with isolated people could lead to whole populations being wiped out by illness, hardship and malnutrition.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country first encountered with the broader society, a significant portion of their population died within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua community suffered the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are extremely vulnerable—in terms of health, any contact might spread illnesses, and even the simplest ones could wipe them out,” says a representative from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any interaction or disruption could be very harmful to their way of life and survival as a society.”

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