Forest Clearances Sealed Ancient Civilisation’s Downfall

New evidence involving plant remains and pollen samples from areas in Peru formerly inhabited by the Nasca civilization has led a team of archaeologists to conclude that the fall of the Nasca society was triggered by human intervention in the delicate ecosystem on which it depended. The evidence collected suggests that as the Nasca intensified maize and cotton cultivation around 1,500 years ago, they also cut down swaths of huarango trees in the process. The huarango had acted as a “keystone species” that could keep soil fertile and lock in moisture in the otherwise infertile and dry desert. Eventually, enough trees were cleared that the ecosystem reached a “tipping point”. Without the huarango's deep roots, the region became susceptible to flooding and, by extension, drought. The Nasca civilization collapsed. Today, deforestation continues with timber sold not just locally, but all over the world. Hence, these findings underscore the immediate and practical threat that unchecked human intervention in the natural world creates for both the ecosystems themselves and the societies that depend on them. – YaleGlobal