The urban political ecology of fog oases in Lima, Peru

Despite providing important ecosystem services and having a unique ecological value, the fog oases scattered around the City of Lima, face various human-imposed threats, with informal urbanisation and land-trafficking being the main drivers of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. As a response, local communities organise themselves to protect their fog oases by means of promoting ecotourism. The paper adopts an urban political ecology perspective to demonstrate that the different claims on the land which fog oases occupy reflect poor urban planning and the under- developed legal framework and, as such, they are inevitably intertwined with the wider structures of power across the city. Drawing from interviews with key stakeholders and various available documentation, the paper analyses the operations of local tourism organisations in Lima and finds that, although they strengthen local governance and contribute to the conservation of fog oases, they are constantly confronted with various formal and informal hurdles.