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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a tiny open space within in the Peruvian rainforest when he detected footsteps approaching through the thick forest.

He realized he was hemmed in, and stood still.

“One person was standing, directing using an projectile,” he states. “Unexpectedly he noticed that I was present and I began to escape.”

He found himself confronting members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a neighbor to these itinerant individuals, who avoid contact with outsiders.

A recent study issued by a advocacy organisation claims exist a minimum of 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” left globally. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the most numerous. The report states 50% of these groups may be wiped out in the next decade if governments neglect to implement additional actions to defend them.

The report asserts the greatest dangers come from logging, mining or exploration for oil. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally at risk to ordinary illness—as such, the study notes a threat is caused by contact with proselytizers and social media influencers seeking engagement.

Recently, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, based on accounts from residents.

This settlement is a angling village of several clans, located elevated on the shores of the local river in the heart of the of Peru jungle, half a day from the nearest village by watercraft.

This region is not recognised as a protected area for remote communities, and logging companies operate here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the noise of heavy equipment can be detected day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their jungle disrupted and destroyed.

Within the village, residents report they are conflicted. They fear the projectiles but they also possess profound admiration for their “kin” dwelling in the woodland and desire to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we are unable to alter their culture. This is why we maintain our distance,” 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 timber workers might subject the Mashco Piro to diseases they have no immunity to.

While we were in the settlement, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a toddler daughter, was in the woodland picking produce when she heard them.

“There were calls, cries from people, numerous of them. As though there were a crowd yelling,” she told us.

That was the initial occasion she had met the Mashco Piro and she ran. Subsequently, her mind was persistently throbbing from fear.

“Because exist loggers and firms clearing the forest they're running away, maybe out of fear and they arrive near us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they will behave with us. That's what terrifies me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the Mashco Piro while fishing. One man was wounded by an arrow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the other person was found dead after several days with several puncture marks in his physique.

Authorities in Peru follows a policy of non-contact with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to start contact with them.

This approach originated in a nearby nation after decades of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who observed that first interaction with remote tribes could lead to entire communities being decimated by illness, hardship and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in Peru made initial contact with the world outside, 50% of their community died within a few years. A decade later, the Muruhanua community faced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly at risk—in terms of health, any contact might introduce sicknesses, and even the simplest ones might decimate them,” says a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any interaction or disruption may be highly damaging to their life and well-being as a community.”

For local residents of {