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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest clearing within in the Peruvian rainforest when he detected sounds approaching through the thick woodland.

He became aware that he had been surrounded, and froze.

“One person positioned, aiming with an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he detected I was here and I began to flee.”

He ended up encountering members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—residing in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a local to these wandering tribe, who avoid contact with foreigners.

An updated report issued by a advocacy group states remain no fewer than 196 termed “remote communities” in existence in the world. This tribe is believed to be the largest. The study says 50% of these communities may be wiped out within ten years unless authorities don't do further actions to defend them.

It claims the most significant risks are from timber harvesting, extraction or drilling for oil. Remote communities are extremely at risk to common sickness—as such, it notes a risk is posed by exposure with evangelical missionaries and online personalities seeking attention.

Recently, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from inhabitants.

The village is a fishermen's community of seven or eight families, sitting elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the most accessible town by canoe.

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

Tomas says that, sometimes, the noise of logging machinery can be heard continuously, and the community are seeing their woodland damaged and ruined.

In Nueva Oceania, inhabitants report they are torn. They dread the tribal weapons but they hold deep regard for their “brothers” dwelling in the forest and desire to defend them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we are unable to change their culture. For this reason we preserve our distance,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the community's way of life, the risk of aggression and the likelihood that deforestation crews might expose the community to diseases they have no immunity to.

While we were in the village, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia, a woman with a toddler girl, was in the forest gathering produce when she heard them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from individuals, a large number of them. Like it was a crowd shouting,” she informed us.

This marked the first time she had met the Mashco Piro and she ran. After sixty minutes, her head was continually throbbing from terror.

“As exist loggers and operations cutting down the forest they are escaping, maybe out of fear and they come near us,” she explained. “We don't know how they will behave towards us. This is what terrifies me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the Mashco Piro while angling. A single person was hit by an projectile to the gut. He lived, but the second individual was found lifeless days later with multiple arrow wounds in his physique.

Authorities in Peru maintains a strategy of non-contact with isolated people, rendering it forbidden to initiate contact with them.

The policy originated in the neighboring country subsequent to prolonged of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that initial exposure with remote tribes resulted to entire groups being wiped out by sickness, hardship and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country came into contact with the outside world, half of their population perished within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly susceptible—in terms of health, any interaction might introduce sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses could eliminate them,” says a representative from a local advocacy organization. “In cultural terms, any interaction or disruption can be highly damaging to their existence and survival as a community.”

For local residents of {