VDL seduces neighborhood group into deal and clears way for immediate logging.
Immediately after VDL Nedcar managed to entice the local organization The Green Spore Wolf into a deal to withdraw a lawsuit that could have saved the Sterrebos, the police entered the forest. Members of a special police unit began climbing into the trees to pick up the six tree protectors. The entire area of the forest has been cordoned off.
VDL says they plan to start cutting down the trees today. By withdrawing their lawsuit in exchange for “compensation,” The Green Spurred Wolf is enabling the destruction of a 200-year-old forest. VDL says it will replant 55 trees and plant new ones. The Sterrebos is a forest unique to the Netherlands that cannot be replaced by moving a few trees.
By starting to cut today, VDL is going against an earlier promise not to cut until a customer has been found. At the moment it is still very uncertain whether the American investor Rivian actually wants to use a production shed in Born. The producer of electric SUVs has not yet made a decision and can also move to England and Germany. So it could be that soon there will be no forest, and no jobs either.
VDL and the mayor say that the evacuation is happening “because of safety. This is a transparent excuse. The safety of our forest protectors has never been at risk. It was the actions of the mayor, security companies and police that created a dangerous situation for the climbers. Today this is again evident. Police spokesmen and our security team are not allowed to be present during the evacuation and arrests to ensure the safety of our climbers.
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Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)