Bruno Manser talking about the plight of the Penan in 1994
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The diaries of Bruno Manser, a Swiss environmental and human rights activist, have been donated to the Museum der Kulturen in Basel.
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The ethnologist became known far beyond the borders of Basel for his passionate but also perilous commitment to the Penan people of Borneo and the threatened tropical forests they called home. Manser went missing in 2000 and was officially declared dead in 2005.
He left behind 16 diaries in which he recorded his observations and his commitment through texts and drawings. Manser’s family has now donated these books as well as other documents to the Museum der Kulturen Basel.
Bruno Manser in the Swiss Alps in 1982
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In 1984, Manser went to Borneo for the first time.
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He was looking for the nomadic Penan, who live in the rainforest.
BRUNO MANSER FONDS BASEL
Bruno Manser in a 1986 portrait by Alberto Venzago
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Another shot by Venzago for a report in GEO magazine in 1986
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Immense rainforest destruction
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Cabinet minister Ruth Dreifuss and Bruno Manser knitting sweaters for the Swiss cabinet in Bern in March 1993
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Construction of a new gas pipeline in the northern part of Sarawak requires major cuts through the rainforest.
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Pictured in Bern in April 1993, Bruno Manser and Martin Vosseler went on a hunger strike to call for a Swiss embargo on tropical wood products.
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Manser returned to Europe regularly to campaign for the rainforest and its inhabitants.
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The Penan blocking loggers in Sarawak, Malaysia, near the community of Long Ajeng
Bruno Manser Fonds (Jeff Libman)
Bruno Manser as a Penan-like fisher and hunter
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A Penan woman feeds a hornbill, known as Metui in the Penan langauge.
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The late Ara Potong, leader of Ba Pengaran Kelian
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Bruno Manser with Penan leader Along Sega
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Peng Meggut from the Limbang region still lives as a nomad.
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Bruno Manser pictured in Sarawak in May 2000, shortly before his disappearance
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Twilight skies above the rainforest
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Banned from Malaysia
Manser was working as a shepherd in Graubünden when he decided to move to Sarawak in 1984. He won the trust of the Penan, adopted their simple lifestyle, and ended up staying for six years before returning to Switzerland – from where he launched a tireless battle against the logging industry and its destruction of the jungle.
The Malaysian government was highly displeased with Manser’s activism, and banned him from the country – though he returned in secret more than once. To draw attention to his cause, Manser resorted to some extreme measures, such as a two-month hunger strike in front of the Swiss parliament and parachuting from a plane with a goat in his arms.
Today, the Basel-based Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) continues the work that Manser started on behalf of tropical forests. Its focus is on helping the Penan people in the Malaysian federal state of Sarawak.
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A moving homage to Bruno Manser
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17 years ago, Bruno Manser, a Swiss campaigner for the rights of the Penan nomads of Sarawak, Malaysia, disappeared without a trace.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
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Author follows trail of Bruno Manser
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Basel author Ruedi Suter slogged his way across leech-filled mud trying to retrace the steps of the late Swiss rainforest activist Bruno Manser.
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BMF remains one of the few non-Malaysian organisations still campaigning on behalf of the Penan, an indigenous people living in some of the world’s most biodiverse forests in Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Two-thirds of its forests have been destroyed in recent years for logging or to build palm oil plantations. Now the BMF…
Friends gather to “remember” missing environmentalist
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Speakers at Wednesday’s meeting made an effort to speak of Manser in the present tense. But it was clear that many had given up hope that he was still alive, a year after he disappeared in the rainforests of Borneo. His last known communication was a letter to a Swiss friend dated May 23, 2000.…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.