By Erity Teave Hey | President, Mana Rapa Nui Foundation · Vice President, Parlamento Rapa Nui | 2025

In 2025, the Mana Rapa Nui Foundation provided a grant to the Fundación Mata ki te Rangi — funding scientific research on Rapa Nui’s native plant species to support environmental knowledge, conservation efforts, and community education on Easter Island.

About the Fundación Mata ki te Rangi

The Fundación Mata ki te Rangi conducts rigorous scientific research on the native and endemic plant species of Rapa Nui. Easter Island’s unique ecosystem — shaped by millennia of isolation in the South Pacific — contains plant species found nowhere else on Earth. This botanical heritage is under pressure from invasive species, climate change, and decades of land use change.

The Foundation operates a botanical garden in the Zona Poniente of Easter Island and is developing an architectural vision for a permanent cultural and research center that will serve the community and scientific visitors for generations.

What the Grant Funded

The Mana Rapa Nui Foundation’s grant funded:

• Scientific botanical research on Rapa Nui’s native and endemic plant species
• Environmental knowledge documentation and conservation planning
• Community education programs connecting residents to the island’s natural heritage
• Development of the Mata ki te Rangi botanical garden and cultural center

Why This Partnership Matters

Preserving the natural heritage of Rapa Nui is inseparable from preserving its people and its culture. The plants of Easter Island are not separate from the Rapa Nui people — they are part of the same story, the same identity, the same future. When we fund botanical research, we are funding the foundation of a sustainable Rapa Nui for generations to come.

The Fundación Mata ki te Rangi represents exactly the kind of community-rooted scientific institution that Rapa Nui needs — and that the world’s philanthropic community has largely overlooked.

“Preserving the natural heritage of Rapa Nui is inseparable from preserving its people and its culture.”

Fundación Mana Rapa Nui

[Gallery photos will be added here once images are uploaded]

Mana Rapa Nui Foundation · 501(c)(3) Nonprofit · EIN: 33-4549354 · manarapanuifoundation.org · eteave@gmail.com