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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny open space deep in the of Peru Amazon when he noticed movements drawing near through the lush forest.

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

“One was standing, pointing using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he detected I was here and I started to run.”

He ended up encountering the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the small settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a local to these nomadic individuals, who reject contact with outsiders.

A new document by a advocacy organization indicates there are at least 196 described as “uncontacted groups” in existence globally. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the largest. The report claims 50% of these groups could be decimated over the coming ten years should administrations fail to take more actions to defend them.

It argues the most significant risks are from timber harvesting, mining or drilling for crude. Uncontacted groups are highly at risk to ordinary disease—as such, the study says a risk is caused by exposure with proselytizers and social media influencers in pursuit of engagement.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's hamlet of a handful of clans, located elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, 10 hours from the most accessible town by canoe.

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

According to Tomas that, at times, the noise of logging machinery can be noticed day and night, and the community are seeing their jungle disturbed and devastated.

Among the locals, inhabitants report they are conflicted. They dread the tribal weapons but they also possess strong admiration for their “kin” dwelling in the jungle and desire to defend them.

“Let them live as they live, we must not modify their culture. This is why we maintain our separation,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the tribe's survival, the danger of conflict and the likelihood that timber workers might subject the tribe to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

While we were in the settlement, the Mashco Piro appeared again. A young mother, a young mother with a two-year-old daughter, was in the forest gathering fruit when she noticed them.

“We heard calls, shouts from others, many of them. As if there were a crowd yelling,” she informed us.

This marked the first instance she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she fled. After sixty minutes, her thoughts was persistently racing from anxiety.

“Since operate deforestation crews and companies clearing the woodland they are escaping, possibly out of fear and they come close to us,” she said. “It is unclear how they will behave towards us. This is what scares me.”

Two years ago, two loggers were confronted by the Mashco Piro while fishing. One man was hit by an projectile to the abdomen. He recovered, but the second individual was found deceased days later with several puncture marks in his frame.

The Peruvian government follows a approach of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as forbidden to commence interactions with them.

This approach originated in a nearby nation after decades of campaigning by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that first interaction with remote tribes resulted to entire groups being wiped out by sickness, poverty and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in Peru first encountered with the outside world, half of their community succumbed within a few years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are very vulnerable—epidemiologically, any exposure might introduce illnesses, and even the simplest ones may wipe them out,” states an advocate from a tribal support group. “Culturally too, any contact or intrusion could be extremely detrimental to their life and health as a society.”

For those living nearby of {