The economy and ecology of Easter Island were relatively simple, but obtaining a tractable mathe­matical representation still requires significant ab­straction and approximation. At a minimum, it is necessary to model the behavior of two ‘‘stocks’’ or ‘‘state variables’’: the forest stock and the population. In fact, it is an oversimplification to focus just on the […]

2.8 Easter Island as a Predator-Prey System As reported in 1998 by Brander and Taylor, the understanding of Easter Island can be greatly advanced by using formal mathematical analysis. The formal description provided here relies on that analysis. One key point is that the Easter Island economy can be viewed as a ‘‘predator-prey’’ system. The […]

Various factors can mitigate Malthusian population dynamics (as Malthus recognized), including techno­logical progress and the possibility of a ‘‘demo­graphic transition’’ under which fertility declines at sufficiently high incomes. (The combination of technological progress and a demographic transition has, of course, allowed most of the modern world to avoid the Malthusian trap over the two centuries […]

2.5 A Cautionary Tale? The basic facts regarding Easter Island are no longer in serious dispute. It is, however, important to understand why Easter Island suffered an internally generated collapse based on resource overuse. The real question is whether Easter Island is an unusual and isolated case or whether it is a cautionary tale for […]

2.3 An End to the Golden Age By the turn of the millennium in 1000 ad, the population was still rising and a statue-carving culture had developed. The statues were carved in Easter Island’s lone quarry and then transported to desired locations using logs as rollers. The forest stock would have been down to perhaps […]

2.1 The Virgin Forest Although there is some uncertainty about dates, it now seems that Easter Island was first discovered by a small group of Polynesians sometime between 400 and 700 ad. The striking surprise that emerged from analysis of core samples is that Easter Island was at this time covered by a dense forest […]

1.1 Early European Contact First European contact with Easter Island occurred on Easter Day of 1722, when three Dutch ships under the command of Jacob Rogaveen stopped for a 1-day visit at the very isolated South Pacific island, just over 3000 km west of Chile. The visitors observed a small, treeless island populated by what […]

JAMES A. BRANDER University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 1. The Mystery of Easter Island 2. First Discovery and Early History 3. Resource Depletion and Collapse 4. Malthusian Population Dynamics 5. A Predator-Prey System with Unfortunate Parameter Values 6. The Role of Property Rights and Open Access 7. Aftermath 8. Lessons of Easter […]