Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has become widely known as a case study of human-induced environmental catastrophe resulting in cultural collapse. The island\u27s alleged ecocide is offered as a cautionary tale of our own environmental recklessness. The actual archaeological and historical record for the island reveals that while biodiversity loss unfolded, the ancient Polynesians persisted and succeeded. Demographic collapse came with epidemics of Old World diseases introduced by European visitors. In this paper, we outline the process of prehistoric landscape transformation that took place on Rapa Nui. This process includes the role of humans using fire to remove forest and convert to land for agricultural use as well as the impact of introduced rats (Rattus exulans) as agents that depressed recruitment of native vegetation and contributed to the island\u27s deforestation. For humans, the transformation of the landscape improved productivity. Burning of palms and other trees provided a short-term addition of nutrients to poor soils. Rock mulch and agricultural enclosures solved problems of cultivation and mitigated risk in an uncertain environment. The environmental transformation of Rapa Nui, while a tragedy in terms of biodiversity, was a success for a sustainable Polynesian subsistence economy
