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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest clearing far in the Peruvian rainforest when he detected footsteps drawing near through the lush woodland.

It dawned on him that he stood encircled, and halted.

“One person stood, directing using an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he noticed I was here and I started to run.”

He ended up encountering members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—was virtually a neighbour to these nomadic individuals, who shun contact with outsiders.

A recent document issued by a advocacy organization indicates there are a minimum of 196 termed “uncontacted groups” in existence globally. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the biggest. It claims 50% of these tribes might be wiped out within ten years should administrations fail to take more to protect them.

It claims the most significant risks stem from timber harvesting, digging or exploration for petroleum. Remote communities are exceptionally at risk to common sickness—therefore, the study notes a danger is presented by interaction with proselytizers and online personalities seeking attention.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from inhabitants.

This settlement is a fishing hamlet of seven or eight clans, perched atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian rainforest, half a day from the most accessible settlement by boat.

The territory is not classified as a safeguarded zone for remote communities, and deforestation operations work here.

Tomas says that, at times, the noise of logging machinery can be heard around the clock, and the tribe members are seeing their jungle disturbed and destroyed.

In Nueva Oceania, residents state they are conflicted. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have profound respect for their “brothers” residing in the jungle and desire to defend them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we can't alter their traditions. This is why we keep our space,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the damage to the community's way of life, the risk of conflict and the chance that loggers might expose the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the community, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a toddler daughter, was in the jungle picking produce when she noticed them.

“There were calls, shouts from people, many of them. As if there was a whole group calling out,” she informed us.

It was the initial occasion she had met the group and she ran. After sixty minutes, her mind was persistently racing from fear.

“As there are timber workers and companies clearing the forest they are escaping, maybe due to terror and they come near us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they might react towards us. This is what terrifies me.”

In 2022, two individuals were confronted by the group while angling. A single person was hit by an arrow to the gut. He survived, but the second individual was located deceased days later with multiple puncture marks in his physique.

The administration follows a policy of non-contact with secluded communities, rendering it prohibited to commence contact with them.

The policy was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of advocacy by community representatives, who observed that first interaction with secluded communities could lead to entire groups being wiped out by illness, hardship and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in Peru first encountered with the outside world, a significant portion of their community died within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community faced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are highly at risk—from a disease perspective, any exposure could spread diseases, and including the simplest ones might wipe them out,” states a representative from a local advocacy organization. “In cultural terms, any exposure or disruption can be highly damaging to their way of life and well-being as a community.”

For those living nearby of {