How we stopped a € 50 million project from destroying a forest (and other ways to pick fights with corporations and governments) (WHY2025)

In 2017 a large corporation announced that they wanted to build a € 50 million theme park in a small forest that I had known from my childhood, thus replacing the future of our children with simple entertainment. An overwhelming feeling of injustice came over us. We created a plan, and we stuck to it. We drew a line in the sand. Fatalism can be your greatest enemy, but it doesn’t have to be. Welcome to the rebellion. In 2017 a large corporation announced that they wanted to build a water theme park in a small forest that I had known from my childhood. Immediately an overwhelming feeling of injustice came over me. Why would you sacrifice the future of our children for a theme park? It turned out a number of neighbours had the same feeling. We decided to draw a line in the sand. For seven years we fought a battle with the corporation and the government, and the whole time everybody was telling us this was a fight we could not win. In 2024 we won that fight. It turned out it wasn’t just luck. We created a plan, and we stuck to it. Since then we have been sharing our experiences with other organisations. Fatalism can be your greatest enemy, but it doesn’t have to be. Welcome to the rebellion. Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/7EMW3A/