"How do I love thee? Let me count the trees."

"How do I love thee? Let me count the trees..."

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! Ten trees, honey. Is that okay?"

"Yes, and you'd better not divorce me, 'cause then I'd want fifty."

In one of the most romantic and moving stories, Mama gnome has ever read, people are asked to plant ten trees in order to get married.

How romantic is that? Get married and plant trees at the same time?

In the Javanese province of Garut in Indonesia, couples are asked to plant ten trees to get their marriage license.

And if they divorce, they need to plant fifty trees.

Indonesia is the third largest producer of green house emissions after China and the United States. This is due to massive deforestation in the country due to overfarming.

The act of deforestation itself releases carbon dioxide and with the the trees gone, carbon dioxide is less absorbed and thus more emissions are released.

According to this CNN report,

Forestry officials have identified "critical land" in Garut, which has been overfarmed and needs to be reforested. The overfarming leads to erosion, which can cause major flooding.

Environmental officials estimate that 50 million trees are needed in Garut alone to reverse the harm done by overfarming.

Fifty million trees! How much will that cost? So they came up with a brilliant plan to ask couples to plant trees.


video from cnn.com


Can you imagine if they did that everywhere?

Las Vegas would be a forest and not a desert.

Mama gnome says, "Ka-ching! Jackpot."

Anybody planning a destination wedding? I hear Garut, Indonesia is very romantic.

Go green.

(c) Jenaelha Friendly Gnome's Blog