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Environmental Conflicts and Activism with Industrialization in South Korea
Author(s) -
Kim Jung Wk
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
clean – soil, air, water
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1863-0669
pISSN - 1863-0650
DOI - 10.1002/clen.200800032
Subject(s) - industrialisation , transparency (behavior) , negotiation , metropolitan area , environmental impact assessment , democracy , government (linguistics) , political science , business , economic growth , geography , law , politics , economics , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology
When South Korea launched the first 5‐year economic development plan in 1962 to industrialize Korea, little attention was given to the environment. The industrialization process has been successful and as a result, the quality of the environment has been continually deteriorating in South Korea resulting in numerous environmental conflicts. The earliest environmental activism that arose was the struggles of the inhabitants in industrial complexes for survival. The government removed inhabitants from the affected areas instead of solving the root causes of the environmental problems. The activism began to disperse into areas surrounding metropolitan cities and industrial areas and even into rural areas as environmentally‐susceptible facilities such as nuclear waste repositories and landfills, which often resulted in violent riots. The environmental conflicts have been aggravated since numerous construction projects have boomed in the country. In particular, the so‐called National Policy Projects such as large‐scale reclamation as well as dam and road construction brought forth nationwide environmental conflicts and activism. Such conflicts often resulted in the breakdown of communities as well as serious economic loss to their inhabitants. Most of these conflicts share common causes, i. e., undemocratic processes in decision making, lack of fair impact assessment procedures, and severe economic loss to the local inhabitants. All of the processes used to resolve the conflicts, e. g., negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and ultimately lawsuits have been painful and costly. Transparency and democracy in the decision‐making process and the fairness in impact assessment are essential to prevent such conflicts or to resolve them. In addition, the voice of the minority victims should not be ignored. In order to ensure this, sustainable governance building is necessary incorporating the government, corporations and citizens. Sustainable development is the key issue to help prevent environmental conflicts arising. There have been positive aspects of the environmental activism, e. g., through the activism, the communities have been strengthened, environmental awareness has risen and social capital has built up.