Record tourism could harm Easter
Island statues
EASTER ISLAND, Chile (AP) — It’s earth’s most remote inhabited land,
a South Pacific speck of volcanic rock so isolated the locals call it “Te Pito
O Te Henua,” or “The Navel of the World.”
But Easter Island is a bellybutton experiencing a tourist boom —
and some are worried the onslaught of outsiders could take a toll on the very
things they come to see, the gigantic stone heads known as Moais.
“More tourism, more deterioration. More visitors, more loss,” said
Susana Nahoe, an archaeologist who was a liaison between Chile’s National
Tourism Service and the island’s scientific community before leaving the post
two years ago, citing “differences in values.”
“We are at the point now where, either we protect what we have or
we lose it,” she said.
Moais (pronounced Moe-Eyes) already face a host of natural
enemies. Sun, surf, winds and humidity are eating at their features. Many have
been beset by blights, lichen and moss. Erosion tears away the Ahus, ceremonial
platforms of dirt and stone on which they sit, and even is slowly claiming the
island’s porous edges.
Nahoe said most tourists are careful not to harm Moais, but some
unknowingly walk or climb on them, exacerbating natural deterioration. Others
deface them deliberately, including a Finnish tourist who was fined $17,000
after hacking an ear lobe off a statue in March.
What can be done to better-protect Moais is difficult to answer.
But then, so much about this place raises beguiling questions. Why were the
heads built? How were they lugged all over the island? What happened to their
eyes? And what catastrophe befell civilization, causing people to suddenly stop
making the Moai and topple the ones they’d completed?
Settlers arrived from the Marquesas Islands to the north between
400 and 600 A.D.. Society flourished until about 1680 and Moais probably were
constructed to honor tribal leaders. But resources became scarce as the
population grew. When islanders cut down all the trees, tribal warfare erupted,
leading to cannibalism and the pulling down of the Moai.
The island’s name comes from Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen who
arrived on Easter Sunday in 1722. It’s Chilean territory, though the country’s
mainland lies 2,237 miles to the east.
At 10 by 15 miles, Easter Island is roughly three times the size
of Manhattan. In 1967, Chile’s Lan Airlines began using it as a refueling stop
en route to Tahiti. Tourists began arriving en masse 20 years later, when a
two-mile runway was built as an alternate landing site for the U.S. space
shuttle.
Today, in addition to a few cruise ships, there are eight flights
a week from Santiago, Chile’s capital, and Papeete, Tahiti. During low season,
late March through July, the number of weekly flights drops to four, but packed
planes have brought record numbers of tourists.
“Every flight is full,” said Pedro Edmunds, mayor of the only
town, Hanga Roa. “It’s been brutal. But in a good way.”
Easter Island has only 4,000 inhabitants, and Edmunds said 52,000
tourists visited in 2007, up 20 percent from 2006 and nearly 10 times 1990
levels. Easter Island has been an UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, but
officials attribute the recent spike to last year’s New Seven Wonders of the
World contest.
The island didn’t win, finishing eighth, but Edmunds said
officials expect 2008 tourism totals to match 2007, spurred by positive
word-of-mouth from visitors. Also helping is the new Explora, the island’s
first all-inclusive, eco-friendly resort. Longtime favorite the Hanga Roa Hotel
is undergoing a major expansion too.
The island has 1,524 archaeological sites, including the 887
Moais, of which only about 50 have been restored. Repairing and placing Moais
upright can cause them to deteriorate faster since they are more exposed than
statues that remain face down or buried.
Edmunds said 54 types of blights feast on Moais and that “there’s
really nothing being done” to protect them. Nahoe said a 2003 experiment by
UNESCO and experts from Japan injected five Moai with a sealant that helped
protect against humidity and lichen. The results were positive, but the
treatment proved too costly for widespread use.
Both complained that problems with preservation are exacerbated by
the fact the island must report to Chile.
“There’s no understanding of the clamor of the Rapa Nui people to
control what’s theirs,” said Edmunds, referring to the island by its official
native name, Rapa Nui. “They don’t leave us room to be creative ... Everything
is in Santiago, where so many have never even visited the island.”
Despite long-simmering frustrations, islanders are exceedingly
friendly. All hotels are in Hanga Roa, where my wife and I spent a week at the
family-run Mana Nui Inn. Our room had a view of the Tahai site, three small
collections of restored Moai silhouetted by endless ocean.
Especially mesmerizing at sundown, Tahai features a Moai with eyes
and a Pukao, a round red feature found on some statues’ heads. It could be a
hat, a topknot or a depiction of hair pulled tightly into a circular mound.
The eyes at Tahai and other sites are not original — genuine
eyes were crafted from coral, but only one survives. It is on display at the
anthropological museum, a must-visit to best understand all there is to see on
the island. The Moais’ average height is 13 feet and they weigh an average of
12.5 tons. Each one is unique, with sizes and features — even ears, lips
and torsos — that vary. They are also almost all male — just 10 of
those unearthed so far have female characteristics.