A struggling tribe in rural Malaysia has set up blockades in a desperate attempt to protect its ancestral land on Borneo from logging.

The Penan tribe in Sarawak state have used tree branches and wooden poles to build the blockades in what they say is a bid to save forests from being completely wiped out.

"If we do not defend our rights today, after logging ends our forests will be set to be destroyed by plantation schemes," the chairman of the Sarawak Penan Association, Ajang Kiew, said in a statement.

Ajang said Sarawak had failed to recognise Penans' native customary rights over the land in issuing logging licenses, and that communities were pressured by companies to agree to unfavourable logging contracts.

He said sources of both food and income such as fruit trees had been lost in some areas where the blockades had been built.

Originally a nomadic tribe, the Penan people are among Malaysia's poorest communities and number just 12,000 out of Sarawak's two million people. Around 500 still live as hunter-gatherers.

The Penan captured the world's attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Swiss environmentalist Bruno Manser championed their cause.

But environmentalists say despite the campaigning, there has been no advancement in recognising the rights of Penans.

"For many years, people have been protesting now and then and making demands for the government to recognise their native rights," said Jok Jau Evong of Friends of the Earth Sarawak, which has been assisting the Penan.

"Since then and until now, no action has been taken," he told AFP.