Activists occupied a forest on Friday morning next to the VDL Nedcar car factory near Born. The group does this because the forest has to make way for an extra production line for the car factory and they do not agree with this.
The activists climbed trees with ropes and installed themselves there with hammocks, the activist group Red het Sterrebos announced. It involves dozens of bat-clad activists from across the country, affiliated with various climate and environmental action groups. In the municipalities of Sittard-Geleen and Echt-Susteren, where the car factory is located, emergency orders apply until 09:00. With this, the police managed to prevent actions and demonstrations around the factory on Thursday.
Nevertheless, the activists managed to occupy the forest on Friday morning. “The action is organized to protect the forest against the planned felling by car factory VDL Nedcar,” the activists write in a statement. VDL wants to cut down 7 hectares of the Sterrebos to enable expansion of Nedcar’s production halls. “VDL Nedcar wants to set up a new production line on the site of the ancient forest. The forest protectors call for the plan to be adjusted so that the forest is preserved.”
On Thursday, VDL entered into talks with the action group. A spokesperson for VDL spoke of a ‘constructive consultation’, but could not say much more about it. “We intend to work it out together,” he said. It is very important for VDL Nedcar to increase production capacity. It is in conversation with Rivian. This American car manufacturer has VDL Nedcar in mind for European production of the R1S.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl