Criminal Punishment and Civil Compensation Responsibility for Wildfire Perpetrators... Korea Forest Service "Will Pursue Until the End"

The Korea Forest Service plans to focus on increasing public awareness of forest fire risks and minimizing forest fire damage by strengthening the arrest and punishment of forest fire offenders. Special firefighting team members belonging to the Korea Forest Service are suppressing a forest fire during the wildfire outbreak in Goseong, Gangwon Province. The photo is unrelated to the article. Source: Korea Forest Service.

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] #Mr. A was sentenced to 5 years in prison after being caught for causing a forest fire that destroyed 0.57 hectares of forest in the Ungjin-ri area of Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do in 2019. Also, in 2016, Mr. B, who caused a forest fire while burning trash in Goun-ri, Suanbo-myeon, Chungju-si, Chungbuk, was ordered to pay 80 million KRW in damages.

According to the Korea Forest Service on the 23rd, from 2016 to 2020, a total of 1,225 people were caught on suspicion of causing forest fires like Mr. A and Mr. B. Among them, 900 were sent to the prosecution and received sentences such as imprisonment, fines, or suspension of prosecution, while the remaining 325 cases were closed without prosecution.

Punishment for forest offenders is based on the Forest Protection Act. The current Forest Protection Act (Article 53) stipulates that ▲those who set fire to forest protection zones or protected trees may be sentenced to imprisonment for 7 to 15 years ▲those who set fire to forests owned by others may be sentenced to imprisonment for 5 to 15 years ▲those who set fire to forests they own may be sentenced to imprisonment for 1 to 10 years.

In particular, the Korea Forest Service amended the Forest Protection Act in 2016 to impose penalties of up to 3 years imprisonment or fines up to 30 million KRW on those who, through negligence, burn others’ forests or their own forests, thereby endangering the public.

This means that even if a forest fire is caused by a simple mistake, punishment cannot be avoided. In addition, separate from the Forest Protection Act, damages can be claimed against forest fire offenders under the Civil Act (Article 750), which further increases the responsibility for causing forest fires.

The Korea Forest Service’s strengthening of penalties for forest fire offenders aligns with the increasing number of forest fires and the scale of damage each year, as well as the high proportion of forest fires caused by arson or negligence among the causes.

For example, this year, from January 1 to March 17, a total of 142 forest fires occurred, destroying 548 hectares of forest. Compared to the annual average of 151 forest fires and 167 hectares of damage from 2011 to 2020, the number of fires is 9 fewer, but the damaged area increased by 421 hectares.

Most importantly, when analyzing the causes of forest fires this year, 31 cases were caused by visitors’ negligence, 28 by burning of rice paddies, fields, and trash, 13 by cigarette-related fires, 10 by visitors for ancestral rites, 9 by building fires, and 51 by other causes. It was found that more than 65% of the forest fires were caused by human error (human-caused disasters) such as simple mistakes.

Accordingly, the Korea Forest Service has implemented a “total ban on burning” to eradicate the burning of rice paddies, fields, and trash near forest areas this year, while focusing on catching forest fire offenders. As of this month, 21 out of 28 offenders responsible for fires caused by burning have been caught (a 75% arrest rate).

Ko Rak-sam, head of the Forest Fire Prevention Division at the Korea Forest Service, said, “Cases where burning rice paddies and fields, agricultural byproducts, trash, and negligence by hikers, which were thought to be trivial, lead to large forest fires continue every year.” He emphasized, “The Korea Forest Service plans to track down and catch forest fire offenders even for simple mistakes and ensure they receive punishment commensurate with the damage caused.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.