A recent change to Peru's law about forests and wildlife is causing strong opposition from environmental and Indigenous groups. They warn it could speed up the cutting down of trees in the Amazon rainforest, saying it is for economic development when it is not.

The new rule means landowners or companies no longer need state permission to change forests into other land. Some people worry this could make years of illegal tree cutting seem okay.

"For us, this is a serious worry," said Alvaro Masquez Salvador, a lawyer who works with Indigenous Peoples at Peru's Legal Defense Institute.

Masquez also said the change is a bad example because it makes land private, which the Peruvian constitution says belongs to the country. "Forests are not private land—they belong to the country," he stated.

People who support the change, which became law in March, believe it will make farming in Peru more steady and give farmers more legal security.

The Associated Press asked several people in Peru's farming industry for their opinions. They also asked Congresswoman Maria Zeta Chunga, who is a strong supporter of the law. But only one person from the farming industry answered, and they said they didn't want to say anything.

Peru has the second biggest area of Amazon rainforest after Brazil, more than 70 million hectares or about 60% of Peru's land, says Rainforest Trust. This area has many different plants and animals and is home to over 50 groups of Indigenous people, some of whom choose to live separately. These groups are important protectors of the natural world, and the forests they look after help control the world's climate by taking in a lot of carbon dioxide, a gas that causes climate change.

The first Forestry and Wildlife Law, which was made in 2011, said that you needed government permission and environmental studies before you could change how forest land was used. But recent changes have slowly made these rules less strict. The newest change lets landowners and companies avoid getting this permission, and it even makes deforestation that happened before legal.

After some lawyers took legal action, the court in Peru decided to keep the new law. The court removed some parts, but it kept the last part that makes past illegal changes to land use okay. Some legal experts think this is the most dangerous part of the law.

In its decision, the court said that Indigenous groups should have been asked about changes to the law and confirmed the Environment Ministry's job in planning forest areas.

Environmental lawyer César Ipenza said: "The court agrees the law broke Indigenous rights and they should have been asked, but it still supports the most damaging part."

This reform is like what happened in Brazil under former President Jair Bolsonaro. In Brazil, politicians and businesses worked together to weaken environmental rules to help farming companies. A very strong group of large farming companies led this effort in Brazil. In Peru, the group is not as organized, but it is still powerful.

In Peru, different groups support this. These include large farming businesses, people who illegally take land, and those connected to illegal mining and drug dealing. Also, small and medium-sized farmers who are worried about keeping their land have joined this effort.

We are seeing legal and illegal activities coming together, said Vladimir Pinto from Amazon Watch in Peru, a group that works to protect the environment.

Julia Urrunaga, who works for the Environmental Investigation Agency in Peru, said that the Peruvian government is wrongly claiming the changes are needed to follow European Union rules. These rules will soon make companies that import products like soy, beef, and palm oil prove that their goods did not come from land where trees were cut down illegally.

She said that if products from illegal deforestation are later allowed to be sold legally, it will make rules about what people can buy, like those in the EU, less effective.

This sends a bad signal to international markets and makes it harder to stop cutting down forests by limiting trade, Urrunaga said.

Olivier Coupleux, the head of the EU's Economic and Trade Section in Peru, said that recent changes to the law are not connected to the EU's rule about stopping deforestation.

Coupleux told Peruvian news outlets that the rule is meant to stop people from buying products that lead to deforestation. He said it doesn't need new laws, but instead requires tracking products like coffee, cocoa, and wood to ensure they are produced in a way that protects the environment.

Because they have no more legal options in their own country, these groups are preparing to take the case to international courts. They say this decision is a bad example for other countries that want to ignore environmental laws by saying they are making changes.

Many Indigenous leaders feel this law is a big danger to their lands, communities, and cultures.

Julio Cusurichi, who is on the board of a group working for people in the Peruvian rainforest, said the new rule will encourage people to take land illegally and make it harder to protect the environment in areas that are already at risk.

Cusurichi said, "Our communities have always protected our lands and the planet."