‘Militant”Activists Protest Deforestation At Sivens In France (Video)

Not Suitable For Office Viewing. In southern France near Toulouse in the soothing Sivens Forest, the sound of   rubber bullets exploding out of riot police guns jar the senses. This beautiful forest is being eaten away by giant growling machines that violently rip the trees from the ground.

Authorities forced the removal of the trees to make way for a dam. And eco-militant activists battle the police in an effort to save the forest. The purpose of the dam is to irrigate cornfields. But both locals and the activists dislike the deforestation.

This video shows how hard the activists tried to save the trees. It was produced by Vice News and contains adult material.

The activists threw rocks at the police and kept Molotov cocktails and gas canisters at the ready. Activists also booby-trapped the road through the forest. They thought if they climbed and remained in the trees, the machines would stop. But the ever hungry heavy equipment keeps chewing the trees into a mangled mess.

One of the activists spoke fondly of family trips to Sivens Forest when he was a child. Another activist talked about the “ecological importance the trees play.” A third activist said that this was the weirdest protest he had ever seen. Participants ranged from clowns to ones trying to make a statement with their nudity.

Forests have been a priority on the international policy and political agendas for the past 20 years. Jan McAlpine, Director of the Secretariat for the for the UN Forum on Forests said,

“There is now greater recognition than ever before that forests are essential to economic development and sustainable development. In this historic meeting, countries broke new ground and agreed to take actions that demonstrate the need to sustainably manage our forests so that they can continue to be a source of livelihoods, broader economic development, including clean air, clean water and biodiversity — all leading to poverty eradication.”

In spite of all of the efforts of the activists, Sivens Forest is losing to the machines of “progress.”