Greenpeace led a protest action in Brussels on Wednesday at the Mediapark site in Schaerbeek, where several trees in the Bois Georgin forest have been felled to make way for an access road to the construction site.
The NGO is calling for a halt to the destruction of green spaces in the capital.
The Bois Georgin is an 8-hectare chunk of woodland in Schaerbeek. Closed to the public, it contains a significant amount of biodiversity, including the garden dormouse, a rodent species in decline throughout Europe, Greenpeace said in a statement.
According to the NGO, the dormice are directly threatened by the planned construction of a large housing complex, known as Block H, in the middle of the wood, which involves felling 1,000 trees, despite protests by the Mediapark neighbourhood committee.
“While we are in the middle of the sixth wave of mass extinction of species, we cannot afford to sacrifice protected species for economic reasons and certainly not to allow the passage of traffic dedicated to a construction site," said Ruth-Marie Henckes, a biodiversity expert at Greenpeace Belgium. “We therefore ask the Brussels government and the municipality of Schaerbeek to review their plans for the link road and for Block H of the Mediapark project, in order to protect the Bois Georgin and the dormice."
Dormice are known for hibernating for six months or longer. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Mediapark neighbourhood committee, for its part, maintains that the decision to cut down the trees was made hastily by the authorities and the builder since these works were launched before the appeal deadlines expired. “The authorities and the builder have once again decided to force their way through and to practice the policy of the ‘ecocidal’ accomplished fact,” the committee said in a statement.
It also alleged that the nature ordinance and the town planning permit were violated.
