印尼：要結婚先植樹

Prospective newlyweds in an Indonesian province are being given one more promise to honor: planting trees to help slow the rapid deterioration of the country's forests.

As Indonesia marks World Environment Day on Thursday, husbands-and brides-to-be in Gorontalo, a rugged mountainous province on Sulawesi island, are being required to plant 10 seedlings supplied by the local government, said Hasyim Alidrus, head of the religious affairs office.

It is part of a nationwide "re-greening" initiative launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Bali Conference in Bali last November and millions of trees were planted across the vast archipelago after the meeting.

The program, critics say, is largely symbolic in a nation that is losing its forests at one of the fastest rates in the world due to illegal logging, mining, new oil palm plantations and slash-and-burn land clearing.

Conservationists say deforestation on Borneo island has claimed an area the size of some European countries and continues virtually unabated.

That has hardly dampened the enthusiasm of 27-year-old Khairul Baso and his fiancee, Andini, who received two 6-month-old teak trees along with palm, fruit and flower seedlings ahead of their wedding this weekend.

The couple is just one of nearly 900 that this year received trees from Gorontalo's religious affairs office, where they are required to register their marriage documents. Couples are required to plant the trees to receive their legal paperwork, Alidrus said.

如今，印度尼西亞某省的準新人們要多履行一個結婚“承諾”：他們在結婚前必須得先植樹，爲減緩印尼森林覆蓋面積迅速減少出一份力。

據印尼哥倫達羅省宗教事務局局長哈希姆·阿里竺斯介紹，在本週四的“世界環境日”當天，該省的每對準新人被要求種植由當地政府提供的十株樹苗。哥倫達羅省是位於印尼蘇拉威西島的一個山區省份。

該活動是爲了響應印尼總統尤多約諾於去年11月在“巴釐會議”上提出的一項“再綠化”全國植樹計劃。會議結束後，印尼在全國各島嶼種植了數百萬棵樹。

評論家說，這一計劃對於印尼來說很具象徵意義。由於非法砍伐、採礦、開闢新油棕園及燒芭活動氾濫，印尼已成爲全世界森林覆蓋率下降速度最快的國家之一。

環保人士指出，森林採伐已導致婆羅洲島的大片森林消失，其面積甚至相當於一些歐洲國家的國土面積，但採伐活動仍在繼續。

不過這並沒有打消27歲的哈盧·貝索和他的未婚妻安迪尼植樹的熱情，他們在這週末的婚禮前領了兩棵6個月大的柚木樹苗以及一些棕櫚樹、果樹苗和花苗。

今年共有近900對新人在哥倫達羅宗教事務局領了樹苗，同時，宗教事務局也是新人們領取結婚證的地方。阿里竺斯說，按照規定，準新人們完成植樹義務後纔可領取結婚證。