Rumah Jeffery is a community in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, home to most of Malaysia’s remaining rainforest. The community’s cultural and spiritual relationship to the forest in which it sits spans generations. 

When a timber company began logging in the Rumah Jeffery’s ancestral territory without its consent in 2022, residents tried to stop the damage. They protested and asked the authorities to recognize their customary land. Instead, Sarawak authorities issued an eviction notice, giving residents 30 days to dismantle their longhouse and leave.

For Rumah Jeffery, eviction would have meant more than losing houses. It would have meant losing land, livelihoods, forest resources, cultural identity, and community life.

Human Rights Watch worked with the Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (SADIA) to document the case, expose the risks, and press authorities, companies, and international buyers to act. 

In 2025 we published “Facing the Bulldozers: Iban Indigenous Resistance to the Timber Industry in Sarawak, Malaysia”. The report documented how the Zedtee company had logged in Rumah Jeffery’s ancestral territory without obtaining the community’s free, prior, and informed consent, to which Indigenous peoples are entitled under international law.

SADIA and community leaders turned evidence into pressure and eventually Sarawak authorities said they would not force the community’s eviction. 

This is the story of an effort to not just stop the bulldozers, but to secure customary land, protect forests, and change incentives. Read it here.