Neolithic man also ravaged the environment

It seems to be a behavior more characteristic of man in general than modern man alone, as mentioned in this National Geographic article:

"It would have been absolutely amazing to have seen this place [Vanuatu] back then... These islands were far richer in biodiversity in those days than they are today." By way of illustration, he picks up a trochus shell the size of a dinner plate that was exposed in a test trench only that morning. "The reefs then were covered with thousands of these, each one a meal in itself. The seas were teeming with fish, and huge flightless birds could be found in the rain forest, virtually tame since they had never seen a human being. The Lapita would have thought they'd stumbled onto paradise."

As indeed it was. But theirs is a story of paradise found and lost, for although the Lapita were a Neolithic people, they had a modern capacity for overexploiting natural resources. Within a short span of time—a couple of generations, no more—those huge trochus shells vanished from the archaeological record. The plump flightless birds followed suit, as did a species of terrestrial crocodile. In all, it's estimated that more than a thousand species became extinct across the breadth of the Pacific islands after humans appeared on the scene."