Forest Clearing for Red Bull: 30 Protesters Put the Canning Plant on the Spot

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Forest Clearing for Red Bull: 30 Protesters Put the Canning Plant on the Spot.

On Monday, clearing work began for a new Red Bull and Rauch canning plant in Baruth/Mark, south of Berlin. Around 30 people protested against the project on the cleared site. The opposition is therefore no longer directed only at a plan, but at an intervention in the forest that is already visible.

Around 17 hectares of pine forest are expected to make way for the site. According to a company spokesperson, Red Bull began the work on Monday, and the site was cordoned off. The planned canning plant is part of the expansion of an existing site around 50 kilometers south of Berlin.

Red Bull Uses the Permit for a Quick Start

“Probably out of fear of protests and pending court proceedings, Red Bull is creating facts”, the initiative “Ressourcenbündnis Baruth” said in a statement. After the permit was granted and published by the municipal administration at the end of October, Red Bull did not let any time pass before the clearing began.

The citizens’ initiative sees this as a deliberate step to circumvent objections from local residents and environmental organizations. Petra Liesenfeld of the citizens’ initiative said Red Bull had shown how the company deals with these concerns by starting the work so quickly.

The dispute therefore has a concrete timeline. The permit was granted at the end of October, and the clearing work began the following Monday. For opponents, this sequence is decisive: The administration had published the plan while court proceedings were still pending.

17 Hectares of Pine Forest Already Affected by the Demolition

Around 30 people gathered at the site. They criticized not only the forest clearing, but also the planned plant’s water consumption. Liesenfeld said a factory that processes aluminum and chemical substances should not be built in a water-protection area.

The intervention is therefore not limited to a strip of forest: According to the report, around 17 hectares of pine forest are expected to make way for the project. Because the work has already begun and the site is cordoned off, the original condition there will be changed for the duration of the construction activities.

That is why the protest is taking place directly on the cleared site. It makes visible what the dispute is about: not an abstract possibility, but work that has already begun. At the same time, the legal outcome remains open because the environmental organization Grüne Liga’s preliminary application against the development plan adopted by the town has not yet been finally decided by the court.

The Court Did Not Stop the Clearing

The Grüne Liga had attempted to temporarily stop the start of forest clearing with an injunction. However, the Higher Administrative Court rejected the application. The clearing was therefore not prevented by a judicial decision, while the main proceedings concerning the preliminary application were still ongoing.

This distinguishes the situation from a build-up: Work is underway, even as the development plan continues to be disputed in court. According to project coordinator Björn Hofbauer, the plan that has taken effect gives Red Bull and Rauch planning certainty for the further development of the production campus.

The environmental side’s objection instead concerns the order of the steps. According to the “Ressourcenbündnis Baruth,” Red Bull did not first wait for a final judicial clarification, but used the permit already granted and the publication at the end of October to begin clearing quickly.

New Forest and Green Areas Are Supposed to Compensate for the Intervention

For the planned operators, the expansion is linked to the existing production site. Hofbauer said the future construction area would be offset by new forest and green areas totaling six times the size. 98 percent of these areas are in the immediate surroundings of Baruth.

The company is therefore emphasizing the location of the compensation areas. The report does not specify the exact area for the compensation. It also remains unclear how the high water consumption can be reconciled with the initiative’s demand that no facility processing aluminum and chemical substances be built in the water-protection area.

The protest makes both points of conflict visible: the rapid start of clearing and the question of the burdens posed by the planned operation. Red Bull has begun the work despite the ongoing preliminary proceedings. Whether the development plan ultimately stands is still for the court to decide.