Study: Entire Civilization Ended Due to Deforestation

Written By ندى ماهر عبدربه on 2024/10/26

This article was written originally in Arabic and is translated using a 3rd party automated service. ArabiaWeather is not responsible for any grammatical errors whatsoever.

Arab Weather - Every year, thousands of tourists from all over the world travel to Easter Island in the South Pacific to see its famous stone statues, the Moai. Since 1722, when the first Europeans arrived on the island, these massive statues have intrigued visitors with their construction and transportation techniques, raising a bigger question: What happened to the people who made these statues?

The traditional account of the fall of Rapa Nui

The traditional story is that the Rapanui people—the original inhabitants of the island—were initially a prosperous society, but they brought themselves to their knees by destroying their environment. According to this account, Polynesian settlers arrived around 800–900 AD, and the population gradually grew. But by 1200 AD, the expanding population and the growing moai industry created enormous environmental stress, leading to deforestation, famine, warfare, and a cultural collapse by the end of the 17th century.

In his famous book Collapse (2005), researcher Jared Diamond used the island of Rapa Nui as an example of the devastating consequences of environmental degradation. According to him, the islanders exhausted their ecological resources, leading to the demise of their complex society and its descent into chaos and cannibalism, a warning of a repeat of the tragedy on a global scale.

Challenging the conventional hypothesis: What does the archaeological evidence say?

When one researcher first went to Rapa Nui to conduct archaeological research, she expected to confirm the traditional account, but she found evidence that contradicted the popular timeline. Radiocarbon studies and paleoenvironmental data have revealed other possibilities: The first settlers may not have arrived until centuries later than previously thought, and they may not have arrived alone, bringing with them chickens and rats that became major food sources.

The role of rats in environmental degradation

Evidence suggests that rats, which have proliferated, may be the main cause of environmental degradation. Rather than deforestation being solely the result of human activity, rats may have killed the palms by eating their seeds. This theory highlights the complexity of the story, as the causes of Rapa Nui’s downfall may be deeper and more complex than just human-induced “ecocide.”

Early Investigations on Rapa Nui: Ecological Isolation and Biodiversity

Rapa Nui is about 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) from the nearest continent, South America, and more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) to the west from the nearest inhabited island, Pitcairn. This geographic isolation makes it a difficult place to grow crops, with strong winds, salt spray and rainfall variability severely limiting plant growth.

Wildlife and flora on the island

The island has a limited number of vertebrates, including a few species, including chickens and rats. It has also suffered from the extinction of several bird species. The vegetation was once dominated by large Jubia palm trees, but these have disappeared over time. Researchers have counted 48 native plant species, 14 of which were introduced by the Rapanui people, reflecting human interaction with and change in the environment.

European records show differences in the description of Rapa Nui when it was discovered. When Jacob Roggeveen arrived in 1722, he described the island as poor and treeless, but later spoke of an abundance of products such as bananas, potatoes, and sugar cane. One of Roggeveen's captains also reported seeing "whole areas of forest", indicating a discrepancy in first impressions.

In the 19th century, visitor J.L. Palmer described the trunks of huge trees such as coconut palms and Edwardsia, which were previously present on the island. These testimonies indicate that the island had a more diverse ecosystem in earlier periods, but that it had undergone ecological transformations due to natural and human factors.

Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl visited the island in the 1950s, and his discoveries sparked widespread interest in the moai. However, he made controversial claims that Rapa Nui had been settled by people from South America, and he launched the Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947 to prove this possibility.

Rapa Nui remains shrouded in mystery, and despite scientists' efforts to fill in the gaps in its history, many details remain puzzling.

In 1955, Heyerdahl led an archaeological expedition to Rapa Nui, suggesting that the island was settled from the east based on the similarity of the statues to some South American stonework. Despite the Polynesian origin of the island's inhabitants, Heyerdahl's assumptions continue to influence the archaeological record. Evidence of human activity on the island has been discovered around 1200 AD, contradicting earlier dates for settlement. Recent research suggests that deforestation was rapid due to human influence and the presence of rats, which contributed to environmental degradation.