Environmentalists push back against wind farm plan in Jeju's Gotjawal forest

Environmental groups are pushing back against a plan by Jeju Energy Corp. to expand a wind farm into Gotjawal, a pristine forest ecosystem on Jeju Island.

The civic group Gotjawal People issued a statement Thursday calling on the Jeju Provincial Assembly's Future Economy and Industry Committee to reject a motion scheduled for review Friday that would designate — or amend the designation of — a wind energy zone for Jeju Energy Corp.'s Dongbok-Bukchon Wind Power District expansion project.

The expansion would install four 4.5 MW wind turbines in a mountainous area of Dongbok-ri, Gujwa-eup, Jeju, bringing the site's total generation capacity from 30 MW to 48 MW — an addition of 18 MW.

According to the group, the project site includes Gotjawal land where the Jeju ternate grape fern, a critically endangered species found nowhere in the world outside Jeju, lives. Surveys conducted between 2023 and last year found a wide distribution of endangered wild plants and animals — including the Jeju ternate grape fern, water shield and the Daehungnan orchid — as well as ecosystem grade-1 and grade-2 plant species such as the black orchid and Daphne kiusiana. The group said more than 70 natural habitats of the globally endangered Jeju ternate grape fern were identified at the site.

Gotjawal People said the expansion project has been mired in controversy since its inception, as it is being pushed forward on publicly owned Gotjawal land that should be prioritized for conservation. The group also said Jeju Energy Corp. submitted the motion to the provincial assembly without fulfilling conditions attached to an earlier conditional approval by the wind power review committee, raising questions about procedural legitimacy.

The group further noted that the Gotjawal in question is publicly owned, making it easier to preserve. "Gotjawal accounts for about 5 percent of Jeju's total area, but 32 percent of it has already been lost to various development projects," it said. "Given that more than 70 percent of remaining Gotjawal — where conservation is most difficult — sits on private land, allowing development even on publicly owned Gotjawal amounts to encouraging further ecological destruction."

The group also criticized Jeju Energy Corp. for failing to carry out a joint survey with Gotjawal People that the wind power review committee had required as a condition when it approved the project in March.

On that point, the group said Jeju Energy Corp. proposed a joint survey plan last month but has yet to respond after Gotjawal People submitted feedback — including a request to reconsider limiting the survey's scope to only endangered wild species.

Gotjawal is a terrain unique to Jeju Island, characterized by a distinctive ecosystem in which diverse vegetation thrives among volcanic rock formations. Though it covers only about 5 percent of Jeju's total land area, it is considered a biodiversity treasure where both southern and northern plant species coexist and more than half of Jeju's native plant species are found.