Time to act

Chile to restrict tourists and non-locals on Easter Island

Easter Island is known for its unique Moai monumental statues carved by the Rapa Nui people, believed to have arrived on the remote landmass in the southeastern Pacific Ocean in around the 12th century. Despite its isolated location some 3,500 kilometers from the coast of Chile, the island is a popular tourist destination, not least due to its remarkable collection of around 900 tall human figures with distinctive features and standing up to 10 meters tall. However, it is those very tourists, alongside mainland migrants, who have become a threat to the

island’s well-being. Chile, which annexed the territory in 1888, has decided to act.

In 2007, Easter Island was designated a special territory while back in March, congress voted to limit the number of tourists and foreign or mainland residents allowed on the island, and the time they’re allowed to stay.

As of Wednesday, new rules will come into effect that reduce the time tourists – Chileans not part of the Rapa Nui people and foreigners – can stay on the island from 90 to 30 days.

“Foreigners are already taking over the island,” Mayor Pedro Edmunds told AFP.

At the last census in 2017, there were 7,750 people living on Easter Island, almost double the population of a few decades ago, before the island was hit by a tourism boom and the real estate development that accompanied it.

Edmunds says that number is 3,000 “too many.” “They’re damaging the local idiosyncrasy, the