Berlin startup offers €1m to save ancient Hambach forest from coal mining

A non-profit Berlin tech startup has offered to buy the remaining 200 hectares of an ancient German forest to save it from being destroyed for coal surface mining.Ecosia, a search engine which donates the majority of its advertising revenue to conservation initiatives and funded the planting of almost 40m trees across the world, has approached the energy firm RWE with an offer of €1m (£877,000) to secure the final stretch of the 12,000-year-old Hambach forest in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.“We think that a fair reconciliation of interests can be found between RWE and the people, and with our commitment to buy the remaining stretch, are pursuing the ecological and societal interests of those who have committed themselves to protecting the forest and dedicated themselves to nature conservation,” Christian Kroll, Ecosia’s CEO, wrote to the head of RWE, Rolf Martin Schmitz.