Plan for cable car at Mt. Bukhan draws protest

By Lee Hyo-sik

The government is considering erecting a 4.2-kilometer cable car line at Mt. Bukhan National Park as part of its efforts to restrict the growing number of climbers from damaging the natural environment there. The envisioned cable car would transport climbers from a parking lot to one of Mt. Bukhan’s major peaks, Bohyeon-bong (714 meters above sea level).

However, environment conservation groups are strongly protesting the planned installment of the cable car, insisting it will attract more visitors to the mountain and further destroy the surrounding environment.

The Korea National Park Service (KNPS) said that it is currently looking into the cable car line, adding the Ministry of Environment will revise an ordinance concerning Korea’s national parks during a Cabinet Meeting later this month to expand the legally-allowed length of the cable car to 5 kilometers from the current 2 kilometers.

KNPS asked the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI) early this year to study the economic feasibility of setting up a cable car at the mountain. After examining three possible routes, the institute said this month that the one linking the parking lot and Bohyeon-bong, which extends 4.2 kilometers, is the most economically viable.

KDI said the mountain is suffering from a surge in the number of visitors, and conversely a drop in the number of animal and plant species, adding if the planned cable carries 1.6 million climbers, 15 percent of the projected 9.72 million visitors in 2013, rather than have them climb the mountain, it will significantly help protect the natural environment.

“We have been considering a number of methods to better protect Mt. Bukhan for years. Installing a cable car is one of them. We think it will help reduce the amount of waste thrown away by climbers and preserve the surrounding environment,” a KNPS spokesman said.

He then said the plan should also be approved by the National Park Committee, which is made up of both government officials and private sector stakeholders, including civic group activists and monks from Jogye Order.

However, environment protection groups are furious over the installation of a cable car, arguing it will do more harm than good.

“KNPS should not act like development-obsessed municipal administrations. Its duty is to conserve the natural environment. It says the envisioned cable car will reduce the number of climbers by directly transporting them to the mountain top. But it will only increase the number of visitors and further ruin the nature in the area,” said Ko-Lee Ji-sun, director of nature and ecosystem division at Green Korea.

The National Park Conservation Network is also campaigning against the government’s move to build the cable car on the mountain, nicknamed “the lung of Seoul.”

“The government’s argument that the cable car will help protect the mountain by dispersing visitors doesn’t make sense. It will only increase the number of visitors,” Ji Sung-hee of the network said.

She said the environment ministry and KNPC’s policy on the cable car is focused too much on the users not the protection of environment.

Instead, more efforts should be made to monitor and fine people who litter while climbing or visiting the mountain.

“We are going to stage a nationwide campaign to recall the right to oversee the national parks from the environment ministry and KNPC if the government really revises the law for the construction of the cable car,” she said.

북한산 케이블카 설치 무산되나?

정부는 북한산 국립공원에 4.2 킬로미터 길이의 케이블카 라인을 설치하는 것을 고려하고 있다.

이는 등산객들이 자연환경을 훼손하는 것은 막기 위한 조치이다.

케이블카는 주차장에서부터 북한산의 가장 유명한 봉우리 중 하나인 해발 747 미터의 보현봉까지 운행하게 된다.

그러나 환경 단체들은 케이블카로 인해 더 많은 관람객들이 모여들어 환경파괴가 가속화 될 것이라며 반대하고 있다.

국립공원관리공단은 환경부가 현재 법령에서 허용하고 있는 케이블카선의 길이를 2킬로미터에서 5킬로미터로 연장해주면 본격적인 논의를 시작하겠다고 밝혔다.