Sejong, March 10 - The Ministry of Environment (Minister Han Wha-jin) announced that the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Natural Environment Conservation Act was resolved at the State Council on March 7 and shall enter into force immediately after promulgation. The deliberation on the impact on natural scenery is conducted together with consultation procedures for environmental impact assessment to prevent areas with a high scenic value from being damaged scenery or blocked visibility caused by development projects. The revised decree improves unreasonable regulations concerning objects subject to deliberation conducted during the consultation process for environmental impact assessment.

The details of the revision are as follows. Small river maintenance projects under the 'Small River Maintenance Act' will be excluded from the deliberation on the impact on natural scenery. It was considered a fact that small river maintenance projects, which are mainly small river construction work and disaster prevention projects for drainage, such as the expansion of the width of the river and bank maintenance, have little impact on the natural scenery. Concerning development projects under the 'River Act,' the scope of targets subject to the deliberation was clarified. The scope will be changed from 'river1 boundary' to 'river area boundary,' so river construction works and maintenance and repair projects, which will be conducted inside the river areas (excluding land and inside embankments), will be excluded from the deliberation. 

The revision also resolved issues concerning fairness in deliberation between large-scale and small-scale river maintenance projects. Until now, large-scale river maintenance projects with a construction section exceeding 10 km along the center of the river were subject to environmental impact assessment but excluded from the deliberation on the impact of natural scenery. On the other hand, small-scale river maintenance projects required deliberation on the impact of natural scenery, even if they were subject to small-scale environmental impact assessment. 

According to a survey by the Environment Ministry, the average number of annual cases for deliberation on the impact of natural scenery for small river and river maintenance projects over the past four years (2019-2022) was 25 and 100 per year, respectively. Until now, there have been complaints that even projects that have little impact on the natural scenery are required deliberation, which adds to the cost burden of business and requires unnecessary administration. Even if small river maintenance projects are excluded from cases subject to the deliberation on the impact of natural scenery, the Ministry of Environment will carefully review the impact on natural scenery from implementing development projects and the impact reduction measures under the item of "natural scenery" in small-scale environmental impact assessment.  

Kim Jong-ryul, Director-General of the Nature Conservation Bureau of the Ministry of Environment, stated, "It is expected that these regulatory improvements will reduce the administrative and financial burdens of businesses involved in the deliberation of the impact of natural scenery." He added, "We will continue to improve unreasonable regulations and substantially operate the system."

1 "River" is a concept that includes the river area (including land inside embankments) and river facilities (dams, weirs, etc.)

Contact: Hwang Eui-Jeong, Deputy Director

Nature and Ecology Policy Division / +82-(0)44-201-7224

Foreign Media Contact: Chun Minjo(Rachel)

+82-(0)44-201-6055 / rachelmchun@korea.kr