For thirty years the nomads of the Borneo jungles – the Penan – have battled to save the forests they have roamed for hundreds of years from the loggers. They alone of all the tribal groups have refused all offers of compensation from logging companies for access to their territory and for 30 years, have mounted blockade after blockade to maintain the land for their hunting and gathering.

But their cause may have suffered a fatal blow with the mysterious death last year of a formidable headman, Kelesau Naan, the leader of the tiny village of Long Kerong. Kelesau’s skeleton was found in the jungle in December last year, two months after he disappeared in what some see as suspicious circumstances.