Start of deforesting and evictions

According to police, RWE will start on monday clearing work in the Hambach forest. We hope and know that as many people as possible will be in the Hambach forest from Monday morning 3:00 clock to defend it.

Correction: it started already Saturday, Nov. 25th. See http://hambachforest.org/blog/2017/11/25/live-ticker-to-the-start-of-the-deforesting-season

We assume that this year they intend do a complete eviction (all tree houses + meadow occupation).
Because it is impossible to enforce this year’s clearing without evicting tree houses, we are prepared for it. We’ll prevent the deforesting! Here are some suggestions:
The last clearing season has shown that 2-3 weeks are enough to destroy about 70 hectares of forest. If you have the opportunity to come over for the next few weeks, then do so! You are needed here more than ever. Here on the spot we need people who occupy the clearing area as extensively as possible. Temporary tree occupations with mobile platforms are prepared and we will provide you with all the material and equipment you need. But also people who can help providing the tree houses, help with press and public relations work and provide emotional support are incredibly important. Since it may be that especially weekdays police in the forest is present, you can call before to ask if it is possible to come into the forest without being checked by police. Every Sunday at 9:00 clock begins an action and climbing introduction. Meeting point is the round house in the meadow.
If it is not possible for you to come for a week or more, you’ve got still the opportunity to be here for one action. For example, you could use an affinity group to prepare a blockade on the access roads (see action map) by which the clearance vehicles come.
Right now it is important to stay up to date and to make known what is happening here as widely as possible.

Continue ReadingStart of deforesting and evictions

Pre-alarm: RWE prepares for action

From some observations in the last 24 hours, we conclude that RWE is preparing for a major police operation. Opinions differ as to whether they plan to create facts before the verdict is pronounced, but it is certain that they want to be ready to start swiftly after the verdict is pronounced. We expect Monday, but Saturday would be possible too. In the past every day including Sunday was cleared, so a start on Saturday would be imaginable.

Get ready to join us. As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know.
And come on Friday at 10 clock to the Verwaltungsgericht (Administrative Court) in Cologne (Appellhofplatz) to accompany the verdict!
Open Street Map

Continue ReadingPre-alarm: RWE prepares for action

Court Proposes Settlement

Live ticker in German

For the entire text (in German) quoted below, go to wdr.de

Open cast mine Hambach: in-court settlement failed

Settlement on the open cast mine Hambach failed
RWE rejects proposal
Court decision until Friday

In the trial about the lignite mine Hambach on Tuesday (Nov. 21th,2017) a settlement failed. The Verwaltungsgericht (Administrative Court) of Cologne had proposed to continue the open pit without felling the forest. The judges expected a coal exit in the foreseeable future.

RWE and a representative of the Land North Rhine-Westphalia stated that this would not be feasible. The BUND as plaintiff, however, supported the settlement. Another proposal by the court, to postpone the extraction limits of the opencast mine and to save the forest from digging, was rejected. By contrast, the BUND (Federation of Environment and Nature Conservation Germany) as a plaintiff could imagine a settlement in which the old Hambach Forest would be left out. Until Friday (24.11.2017) there will now be a judgment.

Protests outside the courthouse

On Tuesday morning, about 100 opponents and supporters of the opencast mine demonstrated before the start of the trial in front of the Cologne administrative court. Several environmental groups had announced protests for the preservation of the Hambach forest.

Between 2020 and 2030 almost all trees are to be cut, in order to advance the open-pit mine as planned shortly before the village of Buir. “Then we’ll look directly into a 440 meter deep hole, where almost the entire city of Cologne fits in and that is so unimaginable crazy, well that’s just terrible,” a 50-year-old man says. With his citizens’ group “Buirers for Buir”, Andreas Büttgen supports two new claims of the BUND. He wants to save the Hambach Forest and thus stop the open pit.

Judgment on Friday 11/24 at 10 o’clock, Verwaltungsgericht Köln.
Open Street Map

Continue ReadingCourt Proposes Settlement

Deep Ecology Afternoon in Gallien, Saturday 2PM

Join us for a meal and get involved in liberating small samplings of beeches, oaks, maples and aspens from the frontline where this winter again we can expect hundreds of riots cops and RWE harvesters and bulldozers attempting to make sure that biodiversity that survived for over last 12,000 years will be eliminated. Trees are a keystone species on which countless other organisms depend so this action gives a chance for some of this biodiversity to be preserved. Started this spring tens of trees from Hambi have been planted at public, collective and individual spaces all across Europe. These trees are a silent testimonial to the extinction of the Hambacher Forest habitats and with small info boards informing of where they have come from they patiently await for their seeds to grow through the cracks of concrete and asphalt that surround them at the moment.

During this Deep Ecology Get Together aditional bird habitats will also be made out of zero waste items such as mid size containers. There will also be discussion of species and biodiversity present in the Hambacher Forest followed by Hambacher Forest Tshirt printing. Join us and tell your friends.

The additional items that could be of use that you could contribute to this project would be small buckets, shovels, and large hiking boots and rubber boots as well as large cooking oil containers and small beer cegs for the bird habitats. Feel free to also bring extra shirts, jackets on which you will be able to print some cool Hambi art.

This is also an ongoing project so if you can not make it tomorrow but are still interested in participating in propagating some of endangered trees and even seeds please get in touch with fnord.andromeda at riseup.net.

Continue ReadingDeep Ecology Afternoon in Gallien, Saturday 2PM