We are doing this for your children

These few strung-together words speak volumes. "We're doing this for your children," the protesters repeat again and again, looking into the serious, impassive faces of police officers. "How can you allow RWE to destroy the last part of the forest?", the activists ask. "You're supposed to protect us, people and nature, not environmentally polluting large corporations." Again no reaction from the officials. Not a twitch of the mouth, or eyes that look down in shame. It feels as though we're talking to a brick wall.

A young mother refuses to descend the slope and is repeatedly pushed and shoved by a police officer. She sits down and tries to explain to the officer the reasons for her protest. She tells him about her two daughters and how much the forest means to her. She is committed to the environment because there will be generations after us who will inhabit this planet. Animals and plants that have no voice to defend themselves. And that it is the responsibility of people here and now to stop climate change. "What am I supposed to tell my children? Man, I can't explain it to my daughters." The police officer stares silently past her. Next to him, his colleagues respond with pepper spray and push the activists further down the slope.

The Hambacher Forst, which the activists are fighting to preserve, is a 12,000-year-old mixed forest located in the triangle between Aachen, Mönchengladbach and Cologne, in the so-called Rhineland mining region. Originally around 5,500 hectares in size, only 10 per cent of the forest remains today. It is home to many different living creatures, including protected and endangered species, as well as trees that are 300 years old. The annual clearing of the forest by 70 hectares by RWE Power AG enormously reduces the habitat for animals, plants and people. According to an estimate by environmental activists, if open-cast mining continues as planned, the rest of the Hambacher Forst will have disappeared in three years.

According to RWE, beneath this valuable natural asset lies a large deposit of lignite in the earth. A fossil fuel that is largely converted into electricity. According to RWE figures, 12 per cent of the energy fed into the German electricity grid comes from lignite. Whilst lignite may have been considered an efficient energy source in the past, it is now proven to be by far the most climate-damaging. In times of advancing climate change, phasing out lignite should have already happened. This would at the same time mean the end of open-cast mining in the Rhineland mining region and thus the largest CO2 producer in Europe. However, the RWE Group's website states that in times of nuclear phase-out, lignite is being relied upon more heavily again. A very contradictory situation that serves economic rather than environmental interests.

The Coalition Against Lignite Rhineland, consisting of a multitude of citizen initiatives and organisations such as ausgeCO2hlt, Attac Cologne, the "Buirer für Buir" initiative and others, have listed in bullet points what burdens and dangers are associated with lignite mining in the Rhineland:

• Further climate change through uncontrolled CO2 emissions
• Irreversible destruction of valuable natural and cultural landscapes through monstrous open-cast mines
• Uprooting of many people through resettlement from established villages and social structures into purpose-built villages
• Unreasonable burdens for people living in mining communities
• Permanent air pollution and associated health hazards including radioactive fine dust, mercury and nitrogen oxides from open-cast mines and power plants
• Endangerment of groundwater and drinking water through dumped power plant residues (millions of tonnes of ash containing heavy metals, amongst other things)
• Incalculable perpetual environmental damage and costs

The Hambacher Forst is a very special place. Here, environmental protectors no longer want to tolerate nature and people being exploited for capitalist profit. That which is declared legal by state and federal government whilst at the same time nature conservationists are criminalised. A contradictory situation when one considers that Germany presents itself as a green model country. As recently as November 2017, the climate conference was held in Bonn, approximately 50 km from the Hambacher Forst, together with the Fiji Islands, and for years the Federal Republic has presented itself as a leader in climate protection and renewable energies. Using lignite again as an energy source is difficult to justify against this background and only further highlights the double standards on display.

The protectors of the Hambacher Forst are more than aware of this. For five years now they have continuously occupied parts of the forest. They live their protest and make a world that is often called an idealistic utopia become reality. They resist power and domination, because for them it is clear that "only in a system in which some have the power to shift the negative consequences of their actions onto others and keep the profit for themselves does it make sense for humans to exploit the earth – because they don't have to suffer the consequences. If the people who were driven from their villages or the people in the Global South, whose homeland is being flooded or made uninhabitable by climate change, had to give their consent to lignite mining, it would never have happened. Only because some can enforce their profit interests through violence is this destruction possible" (https://hambacherforst.org/besetzung/selbstverstaendnis/).

In specially erected villages, such as Oaktown, Beechtown or Monkeytown, the occupiers live in self-organised, loose associations. They inhabit tree houses, some of which are three storeys high, have doors, windows and stoves and can only be reached by climbing. Some of the activists live here year-round, others come to the forest for a few months. Some study alongside this, others work for wages and still others have made the forest their home. A colourful mix of people with different motivations and ideas, but all together want to resist the exploitation of people and nature. Everyone is welcome, even if only for one night. People give themselves a forest name and speak primarily English, as environmental protectors from other countries are also represented here. An attempt is made to do without hierarchical structures or leaders and to constantly reflect on living together. In the forest, the occupiers live for some time a life away from consumption, city noise and stone houses. They work together for the preservation of the forest, the habitat, and against the harmful extraction of lignite.

At the same time, protest is organised here. Throughout the year, preparations are made for the felling season in autumn. Barricades are erected on access roads to make it difficult for clearing vehicles to pass. Forest walks are organised to create as broad a public as possible and networking takes place with other environmental activists. In addition, four times already new villages and tree houses have had to be erected because the old ones were destroyed in a costly clearing operation by RWE staff and police. But the occupiers are not discouraged by this. On day X + 4 after the clearing, a new part of the forest is occupied. They combine their own everyday life with the life of the forest, persist stubbornly even in the worst weather and are simultaneously criminalised by RWE and politics. On the other hand, they receive a lot of support from residents who bring food or let the activists shower at their homes. A large network of support spans around the Hambacher Forst and it keeps growing. Even in Würzburg there was a solidarity rally on Sunday, 17.12.2017, at the Vierröhrenbrunnen with a subsequent human chain across the old Main Bridge.

Throughout the entire area around the open-cast mine, people and groups are showing solidarity against lignite mining. They protest in the most varied ways. Luna, an activist from the environmental group ausgeCO2hlt, sums up the multifaceted nature of the protest as follows:

"We think of our protest in the plural: there are the people who live in the Hambi and make their utopia reality every day. There are NGOs that try to bring about concrete change through institutional means, for example through the BUND's lawsuit against the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. And then there are activists in the cities who want to stir something colourful and loud in people's minds. Right now an incredible amount is happening: there are sketches and symbolic tree occupations at Christmas markets, a protest breakfast in front of RWE, demos and solidarity readings. Ultimately, all these actions bring us together as activists, which is enormously important."

The BUND achieved an important success against RWE by obtaining a felling ban through an emergency application. Since 28.11.2017, felling is no longer permitted. Now the Arnsberg district government is reviewing the nature conservation law questions raised by the BUND until March next year and will then decide on the next main operating plan.

For anyone who wants to find out more, there is a wonderful website by the occupiers with all important information about the Hambi: http://www.hambacherforst.org

Julia Boving