German police try to evict the Hambach forest
- The electricity company RWE has announced its intention to empty about 100 hectares of forest to extract lignite. To prevent the logging of trees, activists are resisting from the homes built on the trees to avoid logging.
On Wednesday, 5 September, hundreds of police officers approached the Hambach parade between Cologne and Akisgrán (Germany) in Germany. Several activists are facing a police operation to try to evict the forest, which since 2012 has been occupied by the stand in order to defend the area. The logging of trees occurs each year in the Hambach forest, but this year’s plan provides for interventions in most of the occupied forest area.
The approval by the Government of the district of Arnsberg (Germany) of the main operational plan of the Hambach mine led to alarms among the environmental activists, as the plan will allow the company RWE to carry out more logs of trees from October onwards. This, as its inhabitants have warned, would lead to the destruction of the oldest parts of the forest and the dismissal of many people from the houses of the trees.
On 13 August, in the morning, a letter was made public from the inhabitants of the Hambach forest. It pointed to the possibility of attempting to evict the area before the pruning season which will begin in October. About two sparse weeks, on 28 August, police had brutally evicted the grassland camp, destroying numerous buildings on the route and arresting fifteen people. The following day, 29 August, a demonstration took place in the Plaza de la Constitución. It hasn't been a week until the police have come back to evict the area.
A more positive alternative
Hambach forest neighbours have stated that their struggle is not limited to fighting the exhumation of natural resources for commercialization, but also seek to “build a more positive alternative” through the occupation of the area. That is what they have been doing for five years, despite the fact that for decades people have opposed the destruction of the forest, because in 2012 they took the step of occupying the area. Since then, people have been living in homes built on trees. In the Hambach forest, the relationship between people puts into value the way of life that governs “solidarity, community and sustainability”. The defense of the forest, however, is something that is present in the day-to-day area.
There are three land surface mines in Hambach for the extraction of lignite or brown coal, and the one that exploits from it is the RWE company that generates burned electricity. The mining operation is continuing and it is estimated that it has already consumed three quarters of the forest. The millenary evolution of one of the oldest forests in Germany is being destroyed in the short term.
Activists warn that the destruction of the forest is a factor that harms everyone. In fact, the three mines in Hambach and the five power plants in Rhenania, emit one third of Germany’s carbon dioxide. Since it is a greenhouse gas, its influence on climate change around the world is important.
Hambach’s neighbours also called for the forest to be defended at the gates of devastation by logging last year. Here the video of the call:
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