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Charred statues evidence of Easter Island tensions

STORY: These charred statues on Chile’s tiny, remote Easter Island are signs of a growing tension between landowners and conservationists.

The island, called Rapa Nui by its indigenous inhabitants, is best-known for the centuries-old statues, called Moai, that dot its landscape.

The statues measure up to 72 feet and weigh dozens of tons. There are hundreds on the 64-square-mile island, which is over 2,000 miles from Chile’s coast.

Some are now marked by fire, a visible sign of the underlying tensions here between old families and authorities focused on conservation.

The local families, under the banner of the self-described Rapa Nui parliament, argue for a return to an ancient clan system for dividing up the land.

While conservationists and an elected council tasked with managing the island’s national park say some people use park lands for cattle farming, at times causing fires.

Local archaeologist Merahi Atam says there’s been an exponential increase in livestock and agriculture on the island in the last few years. She says some of the increase came from wanting to make life more sustainable during the health crisis when the island was cut off.

In October ranchers burning pasture sparked a wildfire that tore across the island’s volcanic crater and damaged several Moai.

The last two years have seen the most wildfires going back to the 1990s, according to Chilean government data.

Meanwhile the number of cattle on the island has risen to more than 6,000 from 3,400 in 1966.

They graze or pass through nearly 80 percent of the national park, according to a University of Chile study.

In 2016 the Chilean state agreed to start handing over control of the park, which covers nearly half the island, to a locally chosen council, which is set to take control in 2025.

But some islanders instead want a return to the clan system which existed before the 1888 treaty between one of the last kings of Rapa Nui and Chile.

But some islanders want a return to the system that existed before 1888 under one of the last kings of Rapa Nui.

Juan Tucki, a member of the Rapa Nui parliament who keeps cattle, said every clan owns land that was distributed by the king.

He said authorities were notified of the pasture burn in October and failed to prepare.

Tucki agrees that certain archeological sites should be run collectively, but that most of the land should be for the people.

Rapa Nui Mayor Petero Edmunds blames the introduction of livestock on the British-Chilean Easter Island Exploitation Company... and the state and military for offering cattle to islanders in the 1980s.

So what do you call that, asks Edmunds. Illegal occupation? Seizure? Usurpation? Of what? Who allowed this? Who brought the first animal? All this needs to be asked, he said. And the only guilty party here is the state.