They eat, live and sleep on elaborate treetop houses perched 80 feet off the forest floor.
They are squatters, but they are not homeless.
Before the mine opened, the 12,000-year-old Hambach Forest was spread over more than 13,000 acres.
Today, only 10 percent of the forests original footprint remains.
A treetop house in Hambach Forest.
The houses were built several feet above the ground to make eviction harder for authorities.
Its very hard to live here,says activist Anna Priess.
There is no running water or electricity, and in the winter it gets very cold.
Summer is better, but you have to get the water here somehow.
Some houses have walls insulated with straw and have ovens for warmth.
Food is cooked over gas stoves and rainwater is collected for washing dishes.
There are about 60 treehouses in the Hambach Forest.
Some of them are connected with hanging walkways.
Aerial view of the open-pit mine and the Hambach Forest.
It serves as the living room where the campaigners can meet and talk.
It also houses the treehouse villages communal kitchen.
The environmentalist want the mine to be closed and the remaining section of the forest to be saved.
Ive known Hambach for decades, before the mine.
It was a great forest, RWE spokesman Guido Steffen told theNational Geographic.
Its a pity it must be logged.
Were not doing this because we have fun logging trees, but out of economic necessity.
Photo credit: hambachforest.org
A tree house named KonTiki.
Photo credit: hambachforest.org
KonTiki from the outside.
Photo credit: hambachforest.org
A tree house named Randale, which means Riot.
Photo credit: hambachforest.org
Randale from the outside.
Photo credit: hambachforest.org
View of the open-pit mine from the edge of the Hambach Forest.
Photo credit: Earth First!
Journal
Protesters block the entrance of the Hambach Forest with barricades.
Photo credit: Alban Grosdidier/Nat Geo
Police officers trying to evict squatters from the Hambach Forest in September 2018.
Photo credit: Michael Gottschalk/Getty Images
