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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny glade deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he noticed footsteps drawing near through the lush jungle.

He realized that he had been hemmed in, and froze.

“One person was standing, pointing with an projectile,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he detected that I was present and I commenced to escape.”

He ended up face to face members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a local to these itinerant people, who shun engagement with foreigners.

An updated study from a human rights organisation states there are at least 196 described as “remote communities” remaining in the world. The group is believed to be the most numerous. It states half of these communities could be decimated in the next decade if governments neglect to implement additional to protect them.

It argues the biggest threats stem from logging, extraction or exploration for crude. Isolated tribes are extremely at risk to ordinary disease—consequently, the study states a threat is presented by contact with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators seeking engagement.

Lately, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, according to residents.

The village is a fishermen's village of several families, located high on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the closest village by canoe.

This region is not recognised as a safeguarded reserve for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas says that, at times, the racket of industrial tools can be noticed around the clock, and the community are observing their forest disturbed and destroyed.

Among the locals, people say they are torn. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess deep respect for their “relatives” who live in the woodland and desire to protect them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we must not alter their way of life. That's why we keep our space,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of conflict and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the Mashco Piro to diseases they have no defense to.

At the time in the settlement, the group appeared again. A young mother, a resident with a young daughter, was in the forest gathering fruit when she heard them.

“We heard cries, shouts from individuals, numerous of them. Like there were a crowd calling out,” she shared with us.

That was the initial occasion she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she fled. After sixty minutes, her thoughts was still pounding from terror.

“As there are deforestation crews and operations cutting down the jungle they are fleeing, perhaps out of fear and they come close to us,” she said. “We don't know how they might react to us. This is what frightens me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were confronted by the Mashco Piro while fishing. One man was struck by an projectile to the abdomen. He survived, but the other person was found deceased days later with multiple injuries in his frame.

The administration maintains a policy of no engagement with isolated people, rendering it forbidden to start encounters with them.

This approach was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of campaigning by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that first contact with remote tribes lead to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, destitution and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in the country made initial contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their community perished within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very vulnerable—in terms of health, any interaction may introduce sicknesses, and even the simplest ones could wipe them out,” says an advocate from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any interaction or interference could be extremely detrimental to their existence and well-being as a community.”

For local residents of {