Amara y Ullujalla — Peru's First Conservation Concession for a Fog-Oasis (Lomas) Ecosystem

In April 2024, Peru's national forestry authority (SERFOR) granted a renewable 30-year Concession for Conservation over 6,449 hectares (15,936 acres) of lomas — fog-fed desert oasis — in the Ocucaje and Santiago districts of the Ica region. The concession, named Lomas y Tillandsiales de Amara y Ullujalla, is managed by the local NGO Huarango Nature in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the neighbouring Samaca organic farm, following more than 15 years of scientific survey and advocacy work.

Lomas ecosystems form only where seasonal marine fog condenses on coastal hills, supporting plant and animal communities found nowhere else. Site surveys recorded 95 of the roughly 675 known lomas plant species at Amara y Ullujalla, of which about 40% are endemic and about 30% are threatened, including at least six critically endangered species such as the shrub Nolana willeana and the lichen Teloschistes peruensis, known from only a few hundred square metres.

The concession is the first legal protection granted specifically for a lomas site in Peru, where — together with Chile — only about 4% of this ecosystem type currently has any protected status. As a renewable, time-bound legal instrument tied to conservation performance rather than outright land purchase, the Concession for Conservation model is intended to be replicable at other unprotected lomas sites along the Peruvian coast, though no second site had been granted under this mechanism as of the source reporting.