Police have started clearing treehouses from Hambach Forest again, a woodland area between the western cities of Cologne and Aachen. A spokeswoman said 28 out of some 50 treehouses had been cleared and 19 of those dismantled.

On Sunday, police detained 14 environmental activists hidden in trees and tunnels Hambach Forest protesters raise treehouse dwellers' spirits in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Authorities have faced stiff resistance from protesters occupying the Hambach Forest since last week, when the first forced evictions began. Several activists chained themselves to tree trunks or holed themselves up in treehouses to protest against plans to expand one of Europe's largest coal mines.

Sunday saw some of the fiercest demonstrations yet, as some 4,000 activists marched towards the woodland between Cologne and Aachen. Some activist groups said the number of protesters could be as high as 9,000.

While authorities have quietly tolerated the activists' occupation of the Hambach Forest since 2012, protests have come to head in recent days, after authorities ordered the woods to be cleared immediately, citing fire hazards.

German energy giant RWE, which owns the land, also announced it plans to begin clearing half of the forest's remaining 200 hectares (500 acres) of woodlands from mid-October.

Energy impasse

RWE intends to expand its open-pit lignite mine, which is already the largest in Europe. Each year, it produces some 40 million tons of lignite — a brown, low-grade coal considered to be one of the most polluting fossil fuels.

Read more: Protesters raise spirits of treehouse dwellers

RWE owns the land and is legally allowed to cut down the trees during the annual logging season. The energy giant insists the clearing is necessary to meet Germany's immediate energy needs. Germany continues to remain heavily reliant on coal, partly to offset Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision in 2011 to phase out nuclear power by 2022.

Environmental activists, meanwhile, condemned the ongoing use of polluting fuel and warned the pit expansion would threatened several protected species and the forest's centuries-old beech and oak trees.

Read more: How far is Germany from a complete coal exit?

Watch video 03:47 Hambach forest to be cleared for coal mining: Claudia Kemfert (DIW) speaks to DW

Energy exit dates adds to fuel to dispute

Activists' hopes were raised after German weekly Der Spiegel reported on Sunday that a government-appointed energy committee had drawn up plans to close the last remaining coal-fired power plants between 2035 and 2038.

The environmental group Greenpeace demanded that RWE and authorities halt all evacuations until the commission's findings are officially unveiled. "Perhaps the Hambach forest will no longer have to be cleared," said Martin Kaiser, Greenpeace's managing director in Germany and a member of the committee.

The committee is due to present its strategy for phasing out coal energy by the end of the year.

However, several lawmakers and industry figures distanced themselves from the Spiegel report, adding that an unconfirmed timetable would have no bearing on events in the Hambach Forest.

Read more: The end of an era: hard coal in Germany

North Rhine-Westphalia's Economy Minister, Andreas Pinkwart from the Free Democrats, told the DPA news agency that the committee still had a lot of work ahead. "It is therefore all the more incomprehensible that prospective exit dates are being mentioned at such an early point in time," he said.

Michael Vassiliadis, head of the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industries Union, warned that if committee chair Ronald Pofalla already began entertaining potential exit dates, "he will negligently undermine the delicate trust that forms the basis this group."

Even the leader of the Green party's parliamentary group Anton Hofreiter warned that "preliminary decisions and secret agreements will make the committee's work unnecessarily difficult."

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? Primal forest At the heart of Europe, in western Germany, near the border to France and Belgium, a scrap of ancient forest holds thousand-year-old trees along with abundant wildlife. But there's another species living there in the forest as well — our own.

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? Life among the treetops About 150 people currently live in what's left of Hambach forest, many in makeshift tree houses. Although living in a tree house may appear idyllic, many of the environmental activists have uprooted their lives for the better part of six years — living without electricity and running water — to protect the forest, and take a stance against the power of the fossil fuel industry.

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? Evictions begin Several hundred police officers accompanied RWE workers for protection as they visited the forest on Wednesday, September 5, to expel the protesters in preparation for clearing. Although the operation was mostly peaceful, one activist was arrested after resisting police.

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? Nonviolent resistance Activists joke about their "dangerous weapons," such as an empty fire extinguisher. Just days before the police action on September 5, Herbert Reul, the interior minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, warned that police and RWE staff in the Hambach forest were dealing with "extremely violent left-wing extremists." Members of the protest group have denied Reul's description.

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? Not the first forest confrontation Over the years, police have clashed with protesters in the Hambach forest. In 2017, police employed pepper spray to disperse protesters in advance of planned logging. The looming eviction is likely to result in the largest confrontation there yet.

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? Trees for coal Here is the result of a recent RWE clearing campaign, which ran from October 2016 to March 2017. In the background, the smokestacks of the Niederaussem power station can be seen. With a CO2 output of more than 29 million tons yearly, this is Europe's third-dirtiest power plant. Due to massive toxic emissions such as mercury and sulfur, it is also considered Germany's second-most-toxic power plant.

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? 'Critical turning point' for climate policy "Clumsy" has lived among the treetops in the Hambach forest since the resistance against the RWE coalmine project began in 2012. He believes the battle over the forest is a critical turning point for German climate policy, and the government's decision is one between "giving in to the lignite hardliners, [or] protecting our life support basis on this planet."

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? Small forest with big stakes Only about 10 percent of the once sprawling Hambach forest has survived the mine's onslaught. What's left appears miniscule in comparison to the vast expanse of the mine, which already covers about 85 square kilometers (33 square miles). But environmentalists say the forest holds enormous ecological value, and is home to abundant and biodiverse ecology, including endangered animal species.

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? Ever-hungry coal industry The Hambach mine, located between Aachen and Cologne, is Germany's largest open-cast mine. Here, RWE uses enormous excavators to extract brown coal, also known as lignite, from the earth. Lignite is among the fossil fuels that emit the most carbon dioxide when burned. What remains of Hambach forest is the last bastion in a long battle against the expansion of the mine.

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? Save the forest, save the world Environmental activists have undertaken nonviolent resistance against the RWE coal mine expansion for more than six years. Through their actions, they claim to not only want to save the Hambach forest from destruction, but also send a message to the world about the dangerous consequences of prioritizing fossil fuel extraction over important ecological sites.

6 years of coal protest coming to an end at Germany's Hambach forest? Global support Activists from all over the world have supported the action by staying for days or weeks at a time. Over the past six years, activists have literally built up an alternative community within the forest. Although it is still unclear what exactly will happen in the struggle between the protesters and the fossil fuel giant, potential eviction is an ever-present possibility for the forest dwellers. Author: Charli Shield



ng, dm/rg (dpa, AFP, AP)

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.