We received the following email:

“A peaceful New Year and no further escalation in the Hambach Forest! – Call to all concerned parties

Dear readers,

We wish you and your loved ones a pleasant start of the new year.

Due to the growing number of voices assuming a massive deforestation of the the Hambach Forst at the beginning of this year, we hereby take the liberty of pronouncing an explicit warning.

If it should actually happen that the Hambach Forest south of the former A4 motorway should be deforested and that pumping stations to lower the groundwater table should be built, we would like to point out that these measures will lead to an escalation between the environmentalists and security personnel.

We therefore ask both the responsible politicians in North Rhine-Westphalia and local authorities, the police executives and the media representatives, to inquire at RWE Power AG as to when, how and where the measures will be taken and to ensure that the activists will not be endangered by the behaviour of private security forces.

We are very willing to communicate to you further information regarding the growing protest movement throughout the coal mining area, the mobilisation in the Hambach Forest and the machinations of authorities and energy business in North Rhine-Westphalia.