일제 식민지시기 산불대책 – 관리의 영역으로 들어온 산불 (Contingency plans for Forest fires, in the Japanese occupation period - Forest fires as Objects of management -)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국역사연구회
· 수록지 정보 : 역사와 현실 / 103호 / 119 ~ 151페이지
· 저자명 : 백선례

초록

지금까지의 일제 식민지시기 산림정책 연구는 산림자원의 이용 및 관리에 초점이 맞춰져 있었다. 권력이 산림자원을 효율적으로 관리하고 이용하기 위해서는 임야면적을 파악하고 소유권을 명확히 하는 것이 중요했으므로, 식민지시기 산림정책 연구도 임야조사사업에 주목하여 많은 성과가 있었다. 그러나 국가권력에 의한 산림 관리를 가능하게 하는, 즉 국가 권력에게 산림 장악의 타당성을 부여한다는 측면에서 산림보호에도 주목할 필요가 있다. 이러한 시각에서 이 글은 식민지시기 산림보호를 명분으로 내세운 정책 중 특히 산불 대책에 주목하여 이 시기를 거치면서 산불이 어떠한 필요에 따라 관리의 영역으로 들어오게 되었는지 살펴보고자 하였다.
산불은 식민권력의 주요 관심대상이 될 수는 없었으며, 산림정책이 시행되는 양상에 따라 산불이 부각되는 양상도 달라졌다. 따라서 북선개척사업 수행과 전시체제기 돌입이라는 상황에 맞춰 산불에 대한 주목도가 높아진 것은 어쩌면 당연한 일이었다. 목재 이용의 효율성을 높이기 위해 산불에 주목하게 된 것은 다소 아이러니하지만, 결국 산불은 관리의 영역으로 들어왔으며, 그 효과도 일정 부분 나타나고 있었다. 그러나 식민 권력의 산불관리가 삼림 전체에 끼친 영향은 그 삼림 이용과 함께 살펴보아야 한다. 이러한 면에서 산불은 권력에 의한 산림 관리의 효과와 한계를 동시에 드러내는 소재가 될 수 있다.

영어초록

Studies of the Colonial authorities’ forest policy, during the Japanese occupation period, have so far concentrated upon examining how the forest resources were managed and exploited. As it was important for the authorities to survey the overall size of Joseon forests (and who owned them as well) in order to manage and monitor forest resources efficiently and effectively, colonial authorities launched certain projects in such vein, and those projects have been well studied by today’s researchers.
Yet how the authorities were endowed with such power over forests, as well as the right to manage forests in the first place, was somewhat absent from previous studies. With the intention to compensate for such absence, the issue of forest protection will be examined in this article, in terms of the authorities’ supposed plans for fire fighting, which the colonial authorities claimed as stemming from their will to protect and preserve forests. By doing so we may see how the issue of forest fires entered the realm of state management to begin with.
Of course, forest fires were initially never the priority of concern for colonial authorities, as earlier they had no reason to deem the issue either worthy or necessary. It was only natural for them to turn their attention to such issue (forest fires) in times when the Bukseon reclamation project was launched and wartime mobilization was firing up full scale. The authorities had to monitor all those forest fires because they needed all the woods they could get, and that was how forest fires entered their range of interests. With a systemic preservation policy in place, at least some of the forest fires may have been prevented. But the effect such policy ultimately had upon the forests in general should be assessed from a more balanced point of view, as such policy was intent upon utilizing all the forest resources, just as much as it was claimed to be interested in preserving them. In that regard, forest fires should be considered as a topic that could reveal both the effects and shortcomings of the colonial authorities’ intentions and efforts.

참고자료

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