logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2020
10m 7s

The struggle to save Borneo's rainforest...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

The rainforests of Sarawak in Malaysia on the island of Borneo are some of the richest and most biodiverse ecosystems on earth - but for decades they've been under threat from commercial logging, permitted by the Malaysian government. In the 1980s, local people from the Penan and Kelabit ethnic groups began to fight back against the logging, setting up blockades and appealing to international environmental groups for support. Their campaign would make headlines around the world.

Lucy Burns speaks to activist Mutang Urud, who helped organise the blockades and later went on a world tour to attract attention to their cause.

PICTURE: Tribespeople with spears block the road as plantation company vehicles approach a blockade in Long Nen in Malaysia's Sarawak State in August 2009. (AFP photo/Saeed Khan via Getty Images)

Up next
Yesterday
How BRICS got its name
In 2001, a few months after 9/11, economist Jim O’Neill was working at Goldman Sachs when he wrote a report about which countries might become big players in the world economy. That’s when he came up with the name BRIC - short for Brazil, Russia, India and China. At first, nothin ... Show More
9m 55s
Oct 9
Japan surrenders in Beijing
Eighty years ago, in the autumn of 1945, World War II surrender ceremonies took place across the Japanese Empire.The one in China was held at the Forbidden City in Beijing bringing an end to eight years of occupation. Thousands of people watched the incredible moment Japanese gen ... Show More
10m 12s
Oct 8
The remote island that was evacuated to 10,000km away
On 10 October 1961, a volcanic eruption threatened the population of Tristan da Cunha, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, and all 264 islanders were evacuated to the UK. Two years later, the majority voted to return. In an interview she gave to the BBC in 1961, M ... Show More
10m 43s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2021
Photographing Brazil's Yanomami
In 1971 photographer Claudia Andujar began documenting the lives of a remote indigenous tribe in the Brazilian Amazon jungle. Her photographs helped the campaign for recognition of the Yanomami's rights over their own land. Chris Feliciano Arnold, writer and reporter specializing ... Show More
50m 27s
Feb 2019
How Nepal Doubled its Tiger Population
Over the past 10 years, Nepal has almost doubled its population of Bengal tigers – it’s estimated the country now has 235 of the magnificent beasts. After years of decline, a combination of smart strategies has turned the tide. The army runs anti-poacher teams, using CCTV, data m ... Show More
24m 20s
Feb 2024
The new fight for land rights
In Malaysian Borneo, indigenous people have struggled for land rights against companies and the state. Using new mapping technology, communities in Borneo’s rainforests are racing to prove their claims. In this episode of Trending we’ll be exploring how technology and social medi ... Show More
18m 20s
Nov 2021
Revisiting the sounds of Mexico’s last rainforest
Over 100 world leaders are gathered in Glasgow, Scotland for COP26 to plan a better future for the planet and one of the first decisions they made is to reduce deforestation by 2030. Scientists say that two-thirds of the biggest rainforest in Mexico, the Lancandon Jungle, has bee ... Show More
21m 58s
Jun 2021
The sounds of Mexico’s last rainforest
Scientists say that two-thirds of the biggest rainforest in Mexico, the Lancandon Jungle, has been lost. With only 10% of virgin territory to protect, environmental groups and indigenous people are fighting to curb deforestation, illegal logging, and trade with protected species. ... Show More
21m 27s
Jan 2012
Saving the Brazilian Amazon
The Amazon rainforest is perhaps the world's greatest single environmental asset. For years the accepted wisdom has been that the remorseless tide of destruction there is unstoppable. Justin Rowlatt travels to Brazil to question this conventional account and finds that over the l ... Show More
27m 58s
Jun 2022
Why are the Maasai being relocated in Tanzania?
For several decades, the Maasai community in Loliondo in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro district have been involved in a land dispute with the government. Thousands of Maasai have lived for years on the fertile 1,500 square km piece of land – using its abundant water sources for their liv ... Show More
12m 21s
Mar 2022
Pacific Islanders building climate resilience
Climate change and disasters continue to imperil the livelihoods and well-being of people in the Pacific Islands. This is the most pressing issue facing the Pacific today, Ofa Ma'asi-Kaisamy, manager at the Pacific Climate Change Centre, tells the BBC’s Frey Lindsay. And Dr Salan ... Show More
17m 28s
Nov 2021
The Malayan Emergency
One of the earliest Cold War conflicts was a 12-year guerrilla war commonly known as the Malayan Emergency and fought from 1948 in the jungles of what is now Malaysia. This communist insurgency was fuelled not only by ideology but also by the desire for Malayan independence from ... Show More
39m 26s