Naju-si Designates and Announces Solbat Park as a No Camping and Cooking Zone

Naju City in Jeollanam-do will designate and announce the area around Jiseokcheon Solbat Park, a national river, as a camping and cooking prohibited zone next month.

According to the city on the 26th, the prohibited area spans approximately 3 km from Ddeudeulgang Solbat Park to near Nam-pyeong Riverside City Yangwoo Naeanae Riverside City 2nd Apartment.

A tent staying long-term at Solbat Park.
[Photo by Naju City]

To designate and announce the camping and cooking prohibition area, a 15-day administrative notice period will be conducted to collect opinions, followed by guidance activities until the 5th of next month before full-scale enforcement begins.

Starting from the 6th of next month, if camping or cooking activities are detected within the prohibited area, fines of up to 1 million KRW for the first offense, 2 million KRW for the second, and 3 million KRW for the third will be imposed according to relevant laws.

The designation and announcement of the prohibited area were promoted to fundamentally resolve issues such as landscape damage caused by indiscriminate and illegal camping, river ecosystem pollution, illegal dumping of garbage, and tent squatting.

Moreover, inconsiderate acts such as pouring hot meat oil on pine tree roots or damaging branches during tent installation have been continuously occurring, causing 2 to 3 pine trees to die each year.

Currently, about 200 pine trees grow naturally in Solbat Park, harmonizing with Jiseokcheon to boast a pristine ecological landscape.

Safety issues such as flood damage have also emerged.

The area is the midstream section of Jiseokcheon, where the risk of flooding is high during heavy rain, and floating tents obstruct river flow during floods, making the current park conditions highly risky for accidents.

The city plans to protect the river ecosystem systematically by designating the camping and cooking prohibited zone and to promote the creation of a campground and designation as a recreational area so that tourists can fully enjoy the pristine ecological landscape within a legal scope in the future.

A city official said, “We ask for the active cooperation of citizens and tourists to eradicate illegal activities within the prohibited area to preserve the natural ecological resources where about 200 old pine trees grow densely for a long time.”

Naju = Kim Yukbong, Honam Reporting Headquarters, Asia Economy baekok@asiae.co.kr

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