Groene Gordel Front26 september 2009 – 09:58

Dear Forrestoccupiers, dear Lapperforters, dear people of the Green Belt Front (GGF) ,

You might know the story of Ovid in which the godess Latona with her newly born twins in her arms asked some farmers for water. But the Lycian peasants refused to give her the water of the little lake in the valey. This infuriated the godess. So she bewitched them and transformed them into frogs that would forever quack in the mud of the pond.

The godess Latona knew that the water belongs to everybody and certainly to her thirsty kids. While she casts her magic on the farmers, she shouted at them: “Do I have to ask your permission to breath the air? Or to walk in the sun? Is all of that your personal belonging?”

Nobody owns the air, nobody owns the sun, nobody owns the water in the world. And yet, some people take hold of it as if it is theirs. It does not only bring lots of tension and unrest, in certain cases it even leads to war.

Forrest is a right as well. The green of the trees produces the purity of everybodies air. The shadow gives coolness to all and everything which grows between its roots gives rise to the diversity of life which we should all respect. Forrests therefore also can not be owned by anybody for any reason.

Like a famous Indian proverb says: “Only when the last tree has been cut down, will we realise that money cannot be eaten.”

If we do not show respect for water, air, life and forrest, then we will become fat frogs on the inside and we will eventually only quack in the mod of an exhausted, depleted and ruined world.

It is important that we deal appropriatly with our natural resourses. Sometimes we need to make choices, but those choices should not be only determined by economic goals. When the nature that surrounds gets threatened, our society is also threatened to a certain degree. Climate change is an obvious and mondial example thereof.

When the destruction of nature by some parties takes on too large a scale, and threatens the lifequality of others, then economic rights loose their strength. Life is everybodies human right and this moral right still stands high above the juridical property-right. He who owns the ground, does not own the life of those who live on that ground. So those who happen to own the ground, cannot polute the water just like that. He who owns the ground cannot pollute the air just like that. He who owns the ground cannot cut down the trees just like that.

In the peacemovements we know that conflict arises out of different interests, but we also know that there is always a way to end a conflict in a peaceful manner by respecting everybodies interest and by looking for a solution which we can all support.

Different interests can find agreement. Peace is always an option. It is imperative that we keep on believing that.

But what we also have to keep believing is that fundamental rights of every human should not be violated.

You, the Lappersforters, the new forrestoccupiers and the people of the GGF, have always believed in these two principles and it makes you into a beautiful example of active non-violence. Because of that, your struggle was fought in the spirit of great people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Their non-violent struggle was a struggle for the social rights of man, your non-violent struggle is a struggle for the ecological rights of man.

To give the forrests over to the coincidental choices and desires of a few people is as absurd as denying an Indian the access to the salt of his own seawater or denying a coloured person access to public transport. Natural resources belong to us all, their division and usage should therefore be just and equitable.

In a time where the Amazonforrest is massively burned down to turn it into soy-fields, we do not only destroy our surroundings and the health and sustenance of the local communities in the forrest, but we also destroy the 'green lungs' of our planet, and ruin the air of every child, wherever it is born in the world.

A struggle for the preservation of forrest is therefore a struggle for the sustainability of our planet. Whether we deal with huge forrests somewhere else or our own local woods, that does not matter, for life is connected with it and therefore we should deal with them wisely.

Let therefore no-one deny how important it was that you took on this non-violent struggle. Even if it went with ups and downs, an agreement with the forrest-owner was reached. The agreement tries to balance all rights: the social, the economic as well as the ecological. It is a beautiful event that can serve an example not only to our political leaders, but to every citizen. So even if some thunderclouds might threaten the lappersfortbos a bit, I hope you will see the change you have already made, and I’m confident you will be able to maintain the same non-violent spirit to see it all through.

With this letter I thus take the opportunity to offer you a very sincere congratulations. This congratulating I do not do because of the result alone, but even more so because you have become 'forest' yourselves. You grew deep roots in the collective realisation that the purity of our natural surroundings is everybodies right. You had a solid trunk that did not bow to the whims and caprices of the world, but that held the truth straight. You had a full leafage that held justice up high. And you gave your surroundings the pure air of peace and non-violence. It is this pure air which is so much needed today.
With my sincerest regards,

The Post Kyoto Pigeon,
- Flemish Peace Week 2009