The biggest PoD is the carving of moai. Stop that and use trees for boats and the Rapa Nui have a chance of contact with the outside world even if it is the occasional canoe.
On the other hand cutting down the trees clears land for growing crops, which has to be a "good thing" because that means more food.
The fact is that colonising Easter Island is a short term win, you have a new island to live on instead of sailing on in your canoes, and a disaster for your descendants when they run out of trees, and they will.
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On the other hand cutting down the trees clears land for growing crops, which has to be a "good thing" because that means more food.
The fact is that colonising Easter Island is a short term win, you have a new island to live on instead of sailing on in your canoes, and a disaster for your descendants when they run out of trees, and they will.
Eating maize might improve the diet of the Rapa Nui but at 5 tonnes per hectare against 6 for taro and 13 for sweet potato that is less food for families that grow it. (Figures are from wikipedia and I am more than happy to accept revisions to them if it helps the Rapa NuiI'm reading that Easter Island was just too cold for breadfruit. Today the main crop on the island is maize, so just getting that from South America would be a real boon for the Rapa Nui.