Earthwatch: Chile - Restoring Easter Island's Forests

Explore Easter Island, one of Earth’s most remote islands. See Moai statues, uncover agricultural evolution, witness consequences of environmental degradation, and learn the Rapa Nui culture. Volunteer on this Earthwatch Expedition in a Chilean island.

You’ll work in a uniquely beautiful landscape amid the warm sea breezes on the island’s western and northern coasts, searching for prehistoric gardens, livestock enclosures, and agricultural fields. Under the gaze of the giant stone moai, you'll conduct surface surveys, take photographs and GPS coordinates, measure stone features and clear grass, and dig test-pits in gardens to document the evolution of farming on the island. The artifacts you find will throw light on the lives of Rapa Nui’s original inhabitants, their culture, and its ultimate fate in the face of harsh environmental conditions and European disruptions.

You'll help conduct controlled cultivation experiments, including planting, registering and weighing plant growth, and photography work, to evaluate how effective the prehistoric lithic mulching system was in feeding the inhabitants of the island and to explore the implications this might have had for the cultural development of the prehistoric Polynesian society on Rapa Nui. You'll also help prepare soil to better sustain varieties of the indigenous plants of Rapa Nui, helping crate a botanical reserve for plants at risk. Finally, you'll have opportunities to participate in reforesting critically eroded areas of the island.

In your recreational time, wander in awe over what’s been called "one giant archaeological site," with nearby petroglyphs, caves, and ceremonial centers to capture your imagination.