Around 40 people from the Penan community in Sarawak have set up a blockade at a logging road in Long Ajeng to prevent timber industry giant Samling Group’s bulldozers from entering a disputed forest area.

The act is the latest in a series of tussles between the local indigenous communities in the upper Baram region who want the forest land left untouched and Samling Group who claimed they have legally obtained permission to conduct logging operations there.

“We call on the Sarawak government to...