The Penan are fighting for their forests -- and their livesThere is a battle underway in the jungles of Sarawak, one of two Malaysian states on the southeast Asian nation of Borneo. It is between a hunting-gathering people known as the Penan tribe and industrial loggers.
According to a recent AFP news story, women and young girls from the tribe have been raped by workers from the logging camps.
"The investigation prompted calls from the National Human Rights Commission for the government to take action against the perpetrators, who could face up to 20 years in jail and whipping if convicted of rape," according to the story.
The report comes on the heels of protests mounted last month by the Penan tribe in the form of road blockades in an attempt to stop the logging, which is destroying the rainforest ecosystem on which they -- and countless plants and animals -- depend. Many of the protesters were armed with spears and blowpipes.
"The Penan have been struggling for more than twenty years against the logging companies that operate on their land with full government backing," according to the non-profit tribal people rights group Survival International.
"In areas where the valuable trees have been cut down, the companies are clearing the forest completely to make way for oil palm plantations."
GET INVOLVED
- Write a letter to the Chief Minister of Sarawak raising you concerns for the Penan tribe
- Protect an acre of rainforest through Conservation International
- Donate to the Rainforest Action Network
- Take these seven steps to help save the Amazon rainforest
- Lost World (September 9, 2009)
- The Trees of the Maya (July 29, 2009)
- Environmental Showdown in the Amazon: Big Oil vs. Native People (July 21, 2009)
- The Rare Animals of the Amazon (June 13, 2009)
- Trade Carbon, Save Orangutans (June 8, 2009)
- Hey You, Get Off of My Cloud (May 30, 2009)
- Blowing Noses Into Dead, Ancient Trees (February 29, 2009)
- Dismembering the Earth's Heart and Lungs (January 25, 2009)
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