Fray Jorge

Bosque Fray Jorge National Park was created in 1941 in the Coquimbo region, in the semi-arid north of Chile, and protects some 99 km². It is one of the oldest Chilean national parks and one of the most singular on the continent.

Its value lies in an ecological contradiction: on the tops of the coastal hills, surrounded by semi-desert scrub and a few kilometres from the most arid desert in the world, grow patches of humid Valdivian forest with olivillo, canelo and ferns, species belonging to the rainy south of Chile, more than a thousand kilometres from their continuous range. They survive thanks to the camanchaca, the coastal fog that rises off the Pacific and which the leaves and branches intercept and condense, providing the water that rainfall does not. They are relicts of the forests that covered the area in wetter periods and that were left isolated when the climate changed.

In 1977 UNESCO recognised Fray Jorge as a biosphere reserve, alongside the Juan Fernández archipelago, in Chile's first two designations. It is also the first Starlight site in South America and the fourth in the world, for the darkness and clarity of its skies, which has made it a destination for astronomical observation. The park is the subject of continuing research on fog water harvesting, a field of growing interest in arid zones.