Penan tribe fights rainforest destruction with blockade

8th July 2010
Nomadic tribes­peo­ple in Bor­neo are blockad­ing a road to stop log­gers destroy­ing their rain­for­est.

Mem­bers of the Penan tribe have mount­ed the block­ade in Sarawak, Malaysian Bor­neo, to stop the destruc­tion of the forests they depend on for their sur­vival.

Malaysian tim­ber com­pa­ny Lee Ling is log­ging in the area, and there are plans to clear the Penan’s forests com­plete­ly to estab­lish plan­ta­tions of fast-grow­ing trees for paper pro­duc­tion.

The Penan say the plan­ta­tions will leave them with noth­ing. They live by hunt­ing, gath­er­ing and fish­ing, and will have nowhere to find food if the forests are chopped down.

Penan protest­ing at the block­ade in north­ern Sarawak say they have expe­ri­enced a vio­lent attack by a log­ger. They are also going hun­gry, because man­ning the block­ade means they are unable to spend time find­ing food.

The pro­tes­tors include nomadic Penan, and those liv­ing in set­tled vil­lages.

One Penan man told Sur­vival, ‘We can’t live in a plan­ta­tion envi­ron­ment. It is like ask­ing fish to live on the land.’

Survival’s direc­tor Stephen Cor­ry said today, ‘How many more Penan protests, and how much more intim­i­da­tion by the log­gers, will we see before Malaysia rec­og­nizes that this land belongs to the Penan?’