Green Wedding: Balikpapan Requiring Couples to Plant Trees

Tri Neno Nugroho, 28, and his bride-to-be Riska Widyastuti, 25, were all smiles as they handed over four seedlings to urban ward officials in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. No, it was not a symbolic gesture signifying a budding relationship: instead, the city’s environmental agency has required couples that wish to wed to donate plants in order for them to obtain a marriage recommendation letter and officially marry under Balikpapan’s religious affairs office.