Three new arrests in Germany for the activists that climbed on the trees in the Hambach forest, near Aachen. The activists built a treehouse to prevent the forest to be logged by a mining company.This is the latest episode of a longstanding environmental conflict on the future of the forest. 

The mine company RWE is running three lignite mines in Rhinelan, where they extract around 100 Mio. t of lignite each year. They also run 5 power plants where the coal is being burned in order to produce energy. This industry causes every year millions of tons of CO2 emissions, as well as heavy metals, fine dust and other pollutants.

To preserve the mines from flooding with water the ground water level of the region is being lowered to a depth of around 500m, which brings heavy consequences for the nature. Many villages are being “relocated" which means that the people there are forced to move and the land is being destroyed and contaminated.
For the biggest nowadays running mine there – the mine Hambach – the forest "Hambacher Forst" is being cut since 1978. The plan of the company is to completely clearcut the forest until 2018.

The Hambach Forest are very old: it was born after the retreat of the tundra of the last ice age, 12,000 years ago. In the middle age its access has been taken from the nobility and guaranteed to the villagers by the emperor, and this saved the forest from conversion. All other primary forests in the lowlands were grown because this is the most fertile soil of Germany.

Now deforestation for coal goes on, as well as the arrests of environmentalists. In November 200 policeman with water-cannon and bomb squad confronted the people protesting against the clearing.