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Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a small glade deep in the Peruvian Amazon when he detected movements approaching through the lush woodland.

He became aware that he stood hemmed in, and froze.

“One was standing, directing with an projectile,” he remembers. “Somehow he noticed of my presence and I commenced to flee.”

He had come face to face members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the small community of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a neighbor to these itinerant individuals, who reject interaction with foreigners.

A new report issued by a human rights organization indicates remain at least 196 termed “uncontacted groups” in existence in the world. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the biggest. It says a significant portion of these groups may be decimated in the next decade if governments neglect to implement additional measures to safeguard them.

It argues the greatest threats come from deforestation, extraction or exploration for crude. Uncontacted groups are highly at risk to ordinary sickness—consequently, it states a threat is presented by interaction with religious missionaries and digital content creators seeking engagement.

Recently, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by residents.

The village is a fishing community of a handful of families, perched high on the edges of the local river in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the nearest village by boat.

The area is not recognised as a protected reserve for uncontacted groups, and timber firms work here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the sound of heavy equipment can be heard day and night, and the tribe members are observing their woodland disturbed and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, people state they are conflicted. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have profound admiration for their “kin” residing in the jungle and desire to protect them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we can't change their culture. This is why we preserve our separation,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of aggression and the chance that loggers might expose the community to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

While we were in the settlement, the group made themselves known again. Letitia, a resident with a two-year-old child, was in the jungle gathering fruit when she noticed them.

“We heard cries, cries from people, many of them. As though it was a whole group shouting,” she shared with us.

This marked the first time she had come across the group and she fled. After sixty minutes, her mind was still pounding from anxiety.

“As operate deforestation crews and companies destroying the jungle they are fleeing, maybe because of dread and they arrive near us,” she said. “We don't know what their response may be towards us. That's what scares me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were confronted by the tribe while fishing. A single person was hit by an bow to the stomach. He lived, but the other man was discovered dead subsequently with several arrow wounds in his body.

The administration has a policy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, rendering it illegal to initiate encounters with them.

The policy was first adopted in a nearby nation after decades of campaigning by community representatives, who saw that initial contact with remote tribes lead to entire communities being wiped out by sickness, poverty and hunger.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country came into contact with the broader society, 50% of their people perished within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very at risk—from a disease perspective, any interaction could introduce diseases, and including the basic infections could decimate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any interaction or interference may be extremely detrimental to their way of life and well-being as a community.”

For those living nearby of {