At least fourteen people, including six members of the Penan tribe, were arrested in Malaysia today as they tried to voice their opposition to hydroelectric dams that will force them off their land.
The Malaysian government has released a report confirming that Penan women and girls as young as ten have been raped and sexually abused by logging company workers in Sarawak.
Protests by the Penan tribe in Borneo have escalated, with twelve villages coming together to mount new road blockades against the logging and plantation companies that are destroying their rainforest.
Dozens of Penan tribespeople armed with blowpipes and spears have erected blockades across the roads cut by logging companies deep into their forest in Borneo. The blockaders are calling for an end to logging on their land.
The government of the Malaysian state of Sarawak is ignoring a recent court ruling recognizing the rights of the Penan and other tribes to their land, according to a leading Sarawak Indigenous rights lawyer.
The founder and chairman of a Malaysian timber company that has logged the forests of the Penan tribe for decades has been given an honorary knighthood.
Following pressure from members of the Penan tribe in Borneo, Europe’s leading hotel chain ACCOR has announced an independent review of the operations of logging company Interhill.
A landmark ruling made by the Malaysian courts this week could allow tribes on the island of Borneo to stop logging and oil palm plantations destroying their forests.