Four Bills Including the Amendment to the "Act on the Creation and Management of Forest Resources" Proposed
"We Will Strive to Ensure Public Safety from Landslides"
Democratic Party of Korea Assemblyman Seo Sam-seok (Yeongam·Muan·Shinan) [Photo by Seo Sam-seok's Office]
[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] A legislative amendment is being promoted to allow urgent logging of forest areas destroyed by wildfires. This is because leaving damaged forest areas without restoration work such as logging can exacerbate landslide damage caused by various natural disasters like typhoons.
On the 11th, Seo Sam-seok, a member of the National Assembly’s Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Food, and Maritime Affairs Committee (Democratic Party, Yeongam·Muan·Shinan), officially proposed a partial amendment to the “Act on the Creation and Management of Forest Resources” based on this content.
According to data submitted by the Korea Forest Service, the area damaged by wildfires last year was 24,773 hectares, which is 85 times the size of Yeouido’s 290 hectares.
This damage scale is about 2.3 times larger than the 10-year total of 10,872 hectares from 2012 to 2021. The frequency of wildfires has also surged, with 740 cases last year, which is more than 200 cases above the 10-year annual average of 504 cases.
To prevent secondary damage caused by landslides, a prompt response to the destroyed forest areas is necessary, but currently, only 12% (2,770 hectares) of the total damaged forest area of 24,773 hectares has been restored. The forest area destroyed by the Yeongdeok wildfire in February last year remains neglected even after 10 months.
The reason forest restoration has not been properly carried out is that under current law, logging requires the consent of the forest owner from the state or local government, but often the registered contact information of the forest owner is incorrect, making it difficult to even get in touch.
In March last year, the Korea Forest Service and Gangwon Province selected emergency logging areas in response to the Gangneung wildfire, but consent has not been obtained from 124 out of 537 forest owners even after 9 months.
Accordingly, the amendment allows the Korea Forest Service and local governments to request forest owners’ contact information from telecommunications service providers and establishes grounds to carry out projects without consent when urgent restoration is needed to prevent secondary disasters.
Assemblyman Seo Sam-seok stated, “As wildfires are becoming larger and the dry weather in spring increases the risk of occurrence, rapid forest restoration is essential to protect public safety from natural disasters such as landslides, which is why this amendment was proposed.”
Meanwhile, on the same day, Assemblyman Seo Sam-seok also jointly proposed three other bills along with the amendment to the “Act on the Creation and Management of Forest Resources.”
The “Animal Protection Act” aims to add support regulations such as consultation, advisory, and marketing to expand animal welfare livestock farms in response to new consumer demands. The “Korea Racing Authority Act” intends to establish an individual identification system for racehorses to prevent unauthorized racehorse participation.
In particular, the “Act on Promotion of Electricity Supply in Farming and Fishing Villages” aims to strengthen support for electricity supply in rural areas by expanding the scope of the law’s application from villages engaged in farming and fishing to rural residential villages.
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