Once again Jeju Province is all excited about the gondola issue. Last year it looked like the construction of a gondola on Mount Halla, something that has been debated for years, would not be permitted because of stronger guidelines by the National Parks Commission (NPC), since the area around Halla fell under a class of natural greenery where they are not allowed. Now, however, the province has established a committee to study the idea, and local environmental groups are outraged.
The provincial government's move does not look reasonable. It wants the committee to decide whether a gondola should be constructed at Halla and do so within the first half of the year. If it decides one should be built then it is supposed to seek advice about an efficient way to go about construction. If it decides against the idea it is supposed to consider building one elsewhere. Anyone who looks at what is happening can see that the province is going through the formalities what construction would entail. There is nothing strange about how environmental groups have refused an offer to join the committee and are opposing it from the start.
Why is the government there so obsessed with building a gondola? No one denies that tourism is important for the island province. It would foolish, however, to destroy natural resources that need to be enjoyed for a very long time to come because of a shortsighted interest in a relatively small amount of earnings. The province would be doing itself better to preserve nature than to promote reckless development, and doing so would be more important for its unspoiled image.
Gondolas are not an issue exclusively at Mount Halla. There are debates raging about similar project ideas at other mountains, including Jiri, Songni, Palgong, and Wolchul. We are of course not saying that gondolas should not be permitted anywhere. The NPC has laid out guidelines about where it is appropriate to build them and where it is not. It is time to give up on gondolas where nature needs to be preserved and pool together group wisdom about environmentally friendly ways to construct them where it is possible to do so. That would be best for tourism over the long run as well as for the environment.
The Hankyoreh, 14 March 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] What's the Obsession with Gondolas? |
