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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny glade far in the Peruvian Amazon when he noticed movements drawing near through the thick forest.

He became aware that he stood surrounded, and froze.

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

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a neighbor to these itinerant tribe, who shun contact with foreigners.

A recent report from a advocacy organization states exist at least 196 described as “isolated tribes” in existence worldwide. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the biggest. It says 50% of these tribes might be decimated in the next decade unless authorities fail to take further to protect them.

The report asserts the most significant risks are from logging, digging or operations for crude. Isolated tribes are highly susceptible to ordinary illness—therefore, the study notes a danger is posed by interaction with evangelical missionaries and online personalities looking for engagement.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from residents.

This settlement is a angling hamlet of seven or eight households, perched atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the of Peru rainforest, 10 hours from the closest village by boat.

This region is not classified as a safeguarded area for remote communities, and timber firms function here.

Tomas reports that, sometimes, the sound of industrial tools can be detected around the clock, and the tribe members are witnessing their woodland disturbed and devastated.

Among the locals, people report they are torn. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold deep respect for their “kin” who live in the woodland and wish to defend them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we can't alter their way of life. This is why we keep our space,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the damage to the tribe's survival, the threat of aggression and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the community to illnesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the community, the group made themselves known again. Letitia, a young mother with a toddler girl, was in the jungle collecting food when she heard them.

“We heard cries, sounds from others, a large number of them. As if there was a whole group yelling,” she told us.

This marked the first time she had encountered the tribe and she escaped. An hour later, her mind was persistently racing from anxiety.

“Since operate loggers and companies clearing the jungle they are fleeing, maybe due to terror and they arrive close to us,” she stated. “We are uncertain what their response may be towards us. This is what terrifies me.”

Recently, two individuals were assaulted by the Mashco Piro while angling. One was wounded by an projectile to the abdomen. He survived, but the other man was located dead after several days with nine injuries in his physique.

Authorities in Peru has a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as prohibited to start interactions with them.

The strategy began in a nearby nation after decades of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who observed that first interaction with isolated people could lead to whole populations being eliminated by illness, poverty and hunger.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru came into contact with the world outside, half of their population died within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe faced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are extremely at risk—in terms of health, any contact may introduce sicknesses, and even the basic infections could eliminate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any exposure or interference could be highly damaging to their life and well-being as a society.”

For local residents of {