Three people were arrested in an environmental protest against a planned tree felling in Born in Limburg on Friday, and another seven in the night from Friday to Saturday. All detainees are still in custody on Saturday morning, a police spokesperson confirmed. “Anyone who enters or leaves the area in question will be arrested,” the Limburg police writes Twitter. From 11 a.m. there will be a second ‘solidarity demonstration’ location, at an alternative location designated by the municipality.
A group of environmental activists has been occupying a number of trees in the Sterrebos, an area next to a VDL Nedcar car factory, since Friday morning. The action group Save the Sterrebos wants to prevent the planned felling of trees for the expansion of the factory. Twenty-five activists have therefore settled in the trees with hammocks and have been there for more than 24 hours.
A participant of the protest action arrives late NRC know that about ten demonstrators are demonstrating from the ground. On Saturday morning, participants tried to bring breakfast to the tree occupiers from the ground. They were stopped by Nedcar’s security and later sent away by the police. A police spokesman says the demonstrators were on Nedcar’s private property.
Mayor Hans Verheijen of Sittard-Geleen has later in the day let them know that it is allowed to bring food and drink. The police will make agreements about this with the activists.
Alternative location
One of the demonstrators says that an alternative location for the Nedcar factory has been designated by the municipality in the course of Friday, at the initiative of the mayor himself. The tree occupiers do not intend to exchange the occupation action for the designated location, because it would have “much less effect”. That is why they have announced that local residents and sympathizers can “express their support” there. There are now a number of people.
The action group says that the twenty-five tree occupiers will continue to protect the forest for “as long as possible”. “The approach is to only leave when we are sure that the felling will be stopped.”