**6.1. Social-ecological roles of IRM in Amanioho**

*Seli kaitahu* is a customary ban to temporarily prohibit forest use (hunting/trapping) in certain forest lots, where supernatural agencies such as ancestors' and natural spirits play important roles in monitoring resource use and imposing sanctions on the violator. In Amanioho, hunters/trappers usually distribute the meat of animals to their relatives and neighbours. However, most village men intend to engage in hunting/trapping themselves, rather than continuing to only depend on the distribution of meat from others, because gifting some part of the game animal's meat that they caught themselves is a socially and culturally valued practice for them. Consequently, they prefer not to continue receiving gifts of meat from others unilaterally, but intend to build mutual reciprocal relationships with others. If they catch their own game, they obtain more meat, even though some of their catch must be shared with others when they succeed in hunting/trapping. Furthermore, a dinner in the forest is usually held shortly after chopping down the carcasses of Timor deer and wild boar, and this is of great enjoyment to them [21].

Considering these points, it can be thought that if there was no temporal ban of *seli kaitahu*, forest use without the permission of *kaitahu kua* (poaching) would increase, and such situations, consequently, could lead to the collapse of the well-structured rotational forest use, where people alternate concentrated trapping with the imposition of temporal prohibition on forest use. The increase in poaching is likely to give rise to an incentive to catch before others do, and to cause the intensification of hunting/trapping before the numbers of forest game animals sufficiently recover. In addition, such competition in hunting/trapping and its consequent increase in the harvesting pressure have a risk of occurrence of resource conflicts and discord in the community. In Amanioho, these situations appear to have been avoided since the ban of *seli kaitahu* has been effectively enforced through the supernatural enforcement mechanism.

Although more detailed data on the hunting pressure and dynamics of the resources would be needed to specify something more precise, it seems reasonable to suppose that, to some extent, the norms to control forest use in Amanioho, characterized by gently opened territoriality of the forest and the temporal prohibition of forest use, have contributed to levelling access to the forest, the increase in harvesting pressure caused by competition in catching and avoiding resource conflicts within the community.

<sup>8</sup> Interviews with Ym. A., a 63-year-old male; Hs. Li., a 28-year-old male; and Yh. Li., a 36-year-old male, in February 2007.
