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Rainforests Last Nomads for Native tribespeople have been holding loggers at bay with blowpipes and spears in Malaysia. The Penan people of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo are the last nomadic hunters in South-East Asia. A few hundred of the 8,000-strong tribe have been defending their rainforests from Malaysian Government-backed logging companies for the last year. In Septem- ber, at the start of World Rainforest Week, they destroyed the logging com- panies’ bridges into the ‘park’ that is their home. As part of a worldwide campaign in support of the Penan people, members of the NSW Wilderness Society deliv- ered a petition of 2,000 signatures to the Malaysian Trade Commission in Sydney in September. “The Malaysian Peninsula has been almost logged out of rainforest tim- bers,” campaign director Matthew Jam- ieson said. “TheGovernment has now turned to logging in Sarawak and Sabah, in Ma- laysian Borneo. “The Penan tribe, which derives its food of fruit, roots, and wildlife from the forests, is now under threat as logging companies approach their forests. “(They) have held the loggers off with primitive weapons, mainly be- cause world pressure has stopped repri- sals. But now it remains to be seen how long they can last against Government and logging company pressures.” Australian Deported In March this year, Sydney botanist and journalist Petr Faig] was deported to Australia from Sarawak. He had arrived