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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny open space within in the of Peru rainforest when he heard movements approaching through the lush forest.

He realized that he had been surrounded, and stood still.

“A single individual positioned, aiming using an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he detected I was here and I commenced to flee.”

He ended up encountering the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—was practically a neighbour to these nomadic individuals, who shun interaction with strangers.

A new study by a human rights organization indicates remain at least 196 of what it calls “remote communities” in existence in the world. The group is thought to be the biggest. It claims 50% of these communities may be wiped out in the next decade should administrations fail to take additional actions to defend them.

The report asserts the biggest risks stem from deforestation, extraction or operations for petroleum. Remote communities are extremely susceptible to common illness—as such, the study notes a danger is presented by exposure with religious missionaries and digital content creators seeking clicks.

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

This settlement is a fishing community of a handful of families, sitting elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian rainforest, 10 hours from the closest settlement by boat.

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

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the noise of heavy equipment can be detected day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their forest disrupted and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, residents report they are divided. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they also have strong regard for their “brothers” who live in the forest and wish to safeguard them.

“Let them live in their own way, we can't modify their culture. That's why we keep our space,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the community's way of life, the risk of aggression and the possibility that timber workers might subject the community to illnesses they have no resistance to.

While we were in the settlement, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a toddler daughter, was in the jungle picking fruit when she detected them.

“We heard shouting, cries from people, a large number of them. Like there was a crowd calling out,” she shared with us.

This marked the first instance she had come across the group and she escaped. An hour later, her thoughts was still racing from terror.

“Since exist loggers and operations destroying the forest they are escaping, possibly out of fear and they end up near us,” she explained. “We are uncertain how they might react to us. This is what frightens me.”

In 2022, two loggers were assaulted by the group while catching fish. One was struck by an arrow to the stomach. He lived, but the other person was discovered dead days later with several injuries in his frame.

The Peruvian government maintains a strategy of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, making it prohibited to commence encounters with them.

The policy originated in a nearby nation after decades of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who saw that early exposure with secluded communities lead to entire groups being wiped out by disease, hardship and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country first encountered with the broader society, 50% of their people succumbed within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are extremely susceptible—from a disease perspective, any exposure could transmit sicknesses, and even the basic infections could decimate them,” says an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any contact or disruption can be very harmful to their life and well-being as a society.”

For those living nearby of {