Hamyang County Promotes Tougher Administrative Fines and Penalties with Enforcement of the Forest Disaster Prevention Act

Stricter and Transferred Forest Fire Penalty Standards
Intensive Public Awareness Campaign for County Residents

Hamyang County in South Gyeongsang Province announced on February 11 that, following the enforcement of the Forest Disaster Prevention Act on February 1 to prevent forest fires and other forest disasters and to strengthen the response system, it will intensively promote the revised administrative fines and penalty provisions to county residents.

With the enforcement of the Forest Disaster Prevention Act, some standards for punishment related to forest fires that had previously been stipulated in the Forest Protection Act have been strengthened and transferred, and responsibility for the use of fire in forests and forest-adjacent areas has become significantly stricter.

Photo of Hamyang-gun County Office.

According to the provisions on administrative fines, which are the focus of the promotional campaign, if a person makes a fire in a forest or a forest-adjacent area without permission, an administrative fine of 500,000 won will be imposed for the first violation, 1 million won for the second violation, and 2 million won for the third violation. This represents a significant strengthening compared with the previous administrative fines of 300,000 won for the first violation, 400,000 won for the second violation, and 500,000 won for the third violation.

In addition, under the penalty provisions, if a fire spreads to another person’s forest and causes damage, the offender may be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than three years and not more than ten years. This raises the minimum sentence from the previous range of not less than two years and not more than ten years of imprisonment, reflecting the seriousness of the damage caused by forest fires.

To raise awareness following the enforcement of the law, Hamyang County plans to carry out active promotional activities, including installing 1,000 flags and 70 banners along major roads and in forest-adjacent areas within the county, and will focus on providing guidance on the ban on illegal burning and on compliance with forest fire prevention rules.

An official from Hamyang County stated, “A forest fire can cause enormous damage with a single moment of carelessness,” adding, “We will actively inform county residents of the purpose of the strengthened law and create a safer Hamyang from forest disasters through forest fire administration centered on prevention.”