Harsher penalties cannot stop wildfires

“Monitoring and controlling forest pests and diseases, preventing and extinguishing wildfires, preventing and restoring landslides… to protect forests in a healthy and systematic manner.”

This is the stated purpose of Article 1 of South Korea’s Forest Protection Act, a law aimed at preserving the country’s mountainous woodlands. Among the primary causes of forest damage listed in the law is wildfire, though it is mentioned only as the second major threat.

Is it because wildfires have been underestimated compared to pest infestations? The latest wildfire burned an area equivalent to 80% of the Seoul metropolitan area and claimed more than 30 lives, the highest death toll since the Korea Forest Service began tracking such statistics in 1987. The flood of recent proposals shows how much South Korea still has to improve in preparing for wildfires.

One such proposal calls for stricter punishment for those who accidentally start wildfires. Under the current Forest Protection Act, individuals who cause a fire through negligence can face up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won. Since many of the recent fires were triggered by human carelessness during visits to ancestral gravesites, proponents argue that stricter penalties could serve as a deterrent.

However, let us revisit March 25, the day more than 20 people lost their lives in the blaze. That day highlighted the need to shift our focus from identifying causes to containing the spread. The wildfire, which began on March 22 in Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province, did not claim any lives until the 24th. Then on the 25th, disaster struck. In the absence of rain and with winds gusting up to 27 meters per second, the fire rapidly spread to Cheongsong, Yeongyang, and Yeongdeok. The distance from the fire's origin to the East Sea coast of Yeongdeok is 51 kilometers in a straight line—yet there was no brake powerful enough to halt the firestorm.

Ten years of wildfire data compiled by the Korea Forest Service (2015–2024) may support the stronger punishment argument. The leading cause of wildfires is “hiker negligence,” averaging 171.3 incidents per year. This is followed by waste burning (67.5 cases) and the burning of agricultural by-products (60.3 cases).

Yet when analyzing this data, the average area of damage also matters. Wildfires caused by hiker negligence resulted in an average burn area of 4.01 hectares, nearly identical to that of waste burning (3.58 hectares). Whether the fire was started by accident or careless burning, the scale of the spread remains the same.

Whether harsher penalties reduce crime has long been debated in academia. Numerous studies show that even the reintroduction of the death penalty does not significantly reduce serious crimes such as murder. Moreover, the punishment for accidental fire-starters in South Korea is not less lenient than in other countries. In the U.S., a teenager who caused a massive wildfire by throwing fireworks was fined over 40 billion won—a penalty more symbolic than practical, given that no ordinary person could afford to pay it.

Korean society tends to pin the blame on individuals while neglecting systemic solutions, leading to recurring tragedies. The Sewol ferry disaster and the Sampoong Department Store collapse were such examples. Harsher penalties for accidental arson won’t stop a wildfire that’s bound to travel a kilometer from advancing past 100 meters. It is time for forestry authorities and lawmakers to pursue more mature and fundamental solutions.