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In 1983, this logging was proceeding at the rate of 75 acres per hour, enabling Sarawak to provide 39 per cent of Malaysia's tropical log exports, which amounted to over 50 per cent of the world's total.

The Sarawak office of Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM - the Friends of the Earth organisation in Malaysia) has been involved since 1986 with the native people of Sarawak in a desperate struggle against logging in the province.

However, the people started again a few months later, continuing their fight against the exploitation of their forests. Later the same year, dozens of tribal people were arrested, and the blockades were broken in a police crackdown. Though these were fruitless, the trip and the blockades generated considerable publicity at home and abroad. In June 1987, SAM Sarawak arranged for a delegation of native leaders to go to Kuala Lumpur for talks with the Malaysian government. When their letters and petitions to the Malaysian government to stop the destruction brought no improvement, the Penan people began to blockade the logging camps and roads in 1987, bringing much of the logging to a halt. The logging was systematically destroying the culture and livelihood of the area’s native inhabitants, including the Kelabit, Kayan and Penan peoples. This meant that 39 per cent of Malaysia’s tropical log exports came from Sarawak, amounting to over 50 per cent of the world’s total. In 1983, logging was proceeding at the rate of 75 acres per hour. The Sarawak office of Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM – the Friends of the Earth organisation in Malaysia) has been involved in a desperate struggle against logging in the province since 1986 along with the native people of Sarawak.