Tribal women in Vietnam's Central Highlands will have to get permits to gather firewood to give to their future in-laws as traditional wedding gifts, local media reported.
Brides-to-be of the Gie ethnic minority in Dak Lak province will have to seek permission from authorities before cutting down trees in a nearby nature reserve because of increasing deforestation, newspaper Tuoi Tre said.
According to the traditional pre-wedding ceremony, women from the tribe go into the forest to collect hundreds of branches of a certain length and diameter which they carry to the home of their prospective in-laws.
The attractiveness of the woodpile is used to judge the merit of the match.
The prevalence of the custom has caused deforestation in Ngoc Linh nature reserve, the report quoted A Quang, deputy head of a local People's Committee in Dak Glei district, as saying. - Sapa-dpa