Consensus Building in the Resolution of Complex Environmental Issues: A Case Study of the Hantan River Dam

In this paper, we evaluate a consensus-based solution to a real social and environmental conflict in South Korea. There is increasing concern that the complexity and multi-stakeholder nature of environmental issues demands further consensus-based frameworks to resolve conflicts. However, it is arguable whether the consensus-building approach works in reality. Given the long awaited democracy in South Korean modern history and the debate over the workability of consensus building, it is noteworthy to investigate the first social experiment to adopt deliberative mediation: The parties related to the Hantan River Dam case agreed to use mediation to resolve their conflict. We argue that the institutional scheme should take into account the social systems of which it is a part. Judging the results by the direct outcome criterion, the social experiment to resolve the Hantan River Dam conflict was not successful because the produced agreement was not implemented. This failure has been attributed to the influence of external politics, and representation and accountability problems. There were, however, intangible outcomes such as increased understanding of other parties’ interests, resolution of difficult technical issues, and improved relationships.