Rapa Nui

Declared in 1935, it covers close to 40% of Easter Island and protects the archaeological legacy of the Rapa Nui civilisation, which between the 10th and 16th centuries carved and moved close to 900 moai statues weighing up to several dozen tonnes — a feat of engineering whose methods of moving them without machinery are still the subject of study and scientific debate. The island, one of the most isolated inhabited places on the planet at over 3,500 km from the nearest South American mainland, suffered a severe demographic and ecological collapse after its ancient palm forests were felled entirely, a classic case study in the limits of island sustainability. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, and has been co-managed with the indigenous Rapa Nui community since 2017.