The Khambakh forest is about 12,000 years old, and it is the property of western Germany. However, today only 10% of its original area remains. It is considered one of the oldest European forests, home to hundreds of animal species, including those on the verge of extinction. While Germany has announced ambitious initiatives to phase out fossil fuels, major energy company RWE is trying to put into action its plan to expand the country’s largest coal mine and clear the rest of its forest. One young startup rushed to defend the ancient Hambakh forest.
After a regional court last week temporarily suspended RWE’s deforestation plans, Berlin-based nonprofit Ecosia stepped in, offering to buy the remaining forest for more than $ 1 million to turn it into an accessible public area and protect the remains of the ancient green space.
Ecosia is an ardent defender of forests. To date, the non-profit organization, using its own funds from advertising, has been able to plant about 40 million trees in 19 reforestation sites around the world, and plans to plant 50 million trees in early 2019.
The company’s CEO, Christian Kroll, said: “Germany is planning to phase out coal and a company like RWE, which is extending the life of a dying industry for profit, should not own 12,000 years of forest.”
By the way, discussions and controversies around the Hambach forest are nothing new. For more than six years, activists have lived in forest trees, but last week the police in North Rhine in Westphalia managed to disperse the defenders. Greenpeace’s Martin Kaiser, who also sits on the coal mining commission in Berlin, said RWE’s persistence in destroying the remains of the ancient forest makes any compromise impossible.
Although RWE recently announced that it plans to ditch coal and switch to renewable energy in the future, it still insists that the forest near the city of Cologne should be destroyed.
In an interview with a local newspaper, RWE head Rolf Martin Schmitz said: “The forest cannot be saved. Everything else is just an illusion. Clearing is part of the complex technical and economic systems that are required to ensure an uninterrupted power supply. We have legal and economic law, and these rights will be applied. “
