Nuaulu ritual regulation of resources, sasi and forest conservation in eastern Indonesia.

Nuaulu (Seram, Maluku, Indonesia) manage forest to provision sacred house building and ritual feasting through a system of protected areas ('sin wesie'), examined here in relation to 'sasi' institutions and scare charms ('matakau') that overlap in their functions. 'Sasi' feature in wider debates about how customary practices might deliver conservation objectives. The paper analyses interconnections between these three forms of regulation in the context of deforestation, social change and the recent history of state management interventions.