BaLiKPaPaN

Anyone who will marry in Balikpapan (Indonesia) should plant a tree. Lo said a new law. Figure from Indonesia two years ago in the Guinness Book of Record with a sad mark, being the country with the fastest rate of deforestation in the world. 

This is disturbing because Indonesia is also one of the most biologically diverse countries on the planet: only occupies 1.3% of the earth's surface, but she lived for 11% of plant species in the world, 10% of the mammals and 16% of bird species. 

Illegal logging in tropical forests of the province of Kalimantan provides the world of large quantities of plywood, paper pulp and palm oil. Unfortunately the trees with which it does not stop the logging and mining industry have just consumed by large fires. 

Therefore, the city of Balikpapan on the island of Borneo, has decided to simply make a law for reforestation, that citizens must obey if you want to update their legal formalities. 

"All those who want to marry or to request a birth certificate must plant a tree", has indicated Syahrum Syah Setia, director of the Agency for Management of Environmental Impact. 

Couples in Indonesia need a formal letter of recommendation from the local office, before the Court of Religious Affairs to process your marriage certificate. From now on, when the couple applying for the letter, you will be asked to deliver a seedling tree. "It is mandatory for those who want to marry a hotbed delivered, or not give them the letter of recommendation," noted the spokesman of the Government of the town, Rizal Samauna, as reported by Jakarta Post and Antara Newswire. "For now," he says, "this measure is seen as a wedding gift to the government." Apparently, Balikpapan also plans to require the planting of trees to other formal processes, and encourages people to make it a habit for the birthday celebrations, circumcisions, births of first-and wedding anniversaries. 

This whole problem of deforestation began in the 80s and 90s. Tropical forests and mangroves on the island of Borneo began to be felled, which ended with 70% of the original forest in 2005. 

Kalimantan became the world's largest exporter of forest products, but government programs over the past 40 years have resulted in a boom in population and the uncontrolled conversion of forests into croplands. Many unemployed people could only find work as lumberjacks. 

In 1998, a wildfire burned five million hectares to the east of Kalimantan, an area the size of Costa Rica. This was followed by another fire in 2001. 

Almost all the forests of Kalimantan are the property of the state, but many who once were controlled by the national government are now controlled locally. 

The effects are so visible throughout the country as the president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has established the Indonesian Day Tree Planting 2008 with the planting of one million copies. And it is expected that the first lady, Kristiania Herrawati Bambang Yudhoyono, the prize EAP UN call to women to join the national movement of planting trees on December 1 in Jakarta.