The dispute over the Rapa Nui National Park, Easter Island

Abstract

This paper refers to the dispute process between the Rapanui ethnic group and the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), for the administration of the Rapa Nui National Park (PNRN), which for decades has been incorporated into the National System of Protected Wildlife Areas of the State. The Rapanui ethnic group assumes as one of its main claims against the State of Chile that the administration of the park be transferred to it, following the example of the lican antai indigenous communities (San Pedro de Atacama, Chile). The actions taken to achieve the transfer of the administration and the results reached by the rapanui part account for the political and economic uses of the Park, as an identity reference and source of income, in a context of increasing differentiation with respect to the State of Chile. The PNRN has various declarations of heritage since it concentrates monumental archeology sites on the island. We analyze the economic use of heritage from the perspective of ethnoeconomics (Comaroff & Comaroff, 2009), and its interaction with the political use of heritage. Our hypothesis is that both uses of the patrimony (economic and political)