For 20 years the Penan people from the jungles of Sarawak have mounted a peaceful campaign to protect their ancestral lands, only to be driven back by soldiers, police and contractors.

Earlier this year, as police firing shots in the air tore down the latest blockades of bamboo tied with grass, Penan leaders said if the loggers were not stopped their jungle would be entirely destroyed within two years.

Now at last they have received some official backing.

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"Claims made by Penans on ancestral land are often not considered by the relevant authorities and those who clear the forest areas and commence logging and oil palm activities," said the report, recommending that the land code be reviewed to include customary rights.

It may already be too late.

The rainforests of Sarawak are millions of years old, but have been decimated by the Malaysian logging companies which, campaigners say, have felled trees at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world.

According to the British charity Survival, the rights of the Penan over the land are "openly violated."

The ancient inhabitants of the jungle live by a gentle code that astonishes outsiders. Because sharing is habitual, there is no word for "thank you."

Anthropologists recorded that anger is so rare among the Penan that 40 years after two women argued over an incident of adultery the location was still known as "the house of hair pulling."

When the loggers came the rivers the Penan relied on for fish were polluted, while the wild animals and plants that provide their unique diet and the poisonous latex for the tips of their darts became scarce. Now, however, there is a new pressure on their environment.

"As our forests disappear, they are being replaced by oil palm and acacia," a tribal elder said.

European and North American demand for "green" biofuels made from palm oil means rainforests across the region are being replaced with plantations.

Today, only a few hundred Penan maintain their traditional nomadic way of life, while about 10,000 have settled in village longhouses but still rely on extended trips to the jungle to gather medicines and food.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH