The Hambach Forest, which one could call the last “primeval” forest in Central Europe, is being stubbed for Europe’s biggest climate pollutant – the Rhenish lignite mining area of RWE (Rheinisches Braunkohlerevier), in which RWE mines brown coal. Whole villages and the health of human beings are destroyed in this process.
To prevent all of this we squatted the Hambacher Forest and take part in other effective and direct Actions. Join us!
The Hambach Forest was and is one of the most naturally growing forests in Central Europe. It exists continuously for 12000 years. Before the beginning of the mining, it covered an area of 5.500 hectares, the largest forest of the region between Cologne and the Netherlands. Today, only 1.100 hectares are left, as the rest was cut down by RWE to mine lignite. If we do not stop RWE, the same thing will happen to the remaining forest.
The conflict is not only about the forest though, but also about the climate, our health, resettlement, and about the question: “Who decides?”

The open mine (Hambacher Tagebau) located now where the other part or the forest grew before is part of the Rhenish lignite mining area, the biggest mining area in Europe. This mining area is also the biggest single emission source of CO₂ in Europe. It produces more fine (respirable) dust than all traffic in Germany. This dust has a very negative influence not only on people in close surroundings, but also in Cologne and the Ruhr area. Especially because this fine dust is radio active. Not only the forest but even whole villages are destroyed for the open mine (Hambacher Tagebau).

On April 14th of 2012 the Hambacher forest was squatted by coalmining-opponents. In November it took 4 days for 600 police woMen to evict the first squat. Since the eviction, there exists the second squat on the side of the forest. Not only do we want to protect the forest, we also want to ask the question: “What
do we want our economy to look like in the future, if we do not want to destroy the
climate of this planet?” Burning fossil fuels shurely can not be one of our answers. An economic system that
is based on a need to grow and that does not regulate its productivity according to
peoples needs is not one of our answers either.
Come and join us! Take part!