A recent change to Peru's law about forests and wildlife is causing strong opposition from environmental and Indigenous groups. They warn that it could lead to more trees being cut down in the Amazon rainforest, saying it is for economic development.

The change removes the rule that landowners or businesses need to get state permission before turning forests into other types of land use. Critics say this change could make years of illegal deforestation seem acceptable.

This situation is very worrying for us," said Alvaro Masquez Salvador, a lawyer who helps Indigenous Peoples at Peru's Legal Defense Institute.

Masquez also said the new law is worrying because it lets private companies take control of land that Peru's constitution says belongs to the country. He said, "Forests are not private property; they belong to the nation."

People who support the change, which started in March, believe it will make farming in Peru more stable and give farmers clearer legal rights.

The Associated Press asked several people from Peru's farming industry and a politician who strongly supports the law for their opinions. Only one person from the farming industry answered, saying they didn't want to say anything.

Peru has the second-largest area of Amazon rainforest after Brazil. It covers over 70 million hectares, which is about 60% of Peru's land. This region is one of the most biodiverse on Earth and home to more than 50 Indigenous groups. Some of these groups choose to live separately from others. These communities are important protectors of nature. The forests they protect help control the world's climate by taking in a lot of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a gas that causes climate change.

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

Peru's Constitutional Court supported the new law after some lawyers tried to challenge it. The court removed some parts of the law, but it kept the final part. This part makes past illegal changes to land use legal. Experts say this is the most concerning part.

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 dividing forests into areas.

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

This reform is similar to what happened in Brazil when Jair Bolsonaro was president.

In Peru, the effort is supported by big farming businesses, people who take land illegally, and those connected to illegal mining and selling drugs. Smaller farmers worried about keeping their land safe have also joined this effort.

Vladimir Pinto from Amazon Watch, a group that protects the environment, said that legal and illegal activities are coming together.

Julia Urrunaga, who works for the Environmental Investigation Agency in Peru, warned that the Peruvian government is now "wrongly claiming" that the changes are needed to follow the European Union's rules. Soon, the EU will require companies that import products like soy, beef, and palm oil to prove that these goods did not come from land where trees were cut down illegally.

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

This sends a bad message to global markets and weakens efforts to stop cutting down forests by limiting trade, Urrunaga said.

Olivier Coupleux, who is in charge of the EU's Economic and Trade Section in Peru, said that recent changes to the law have no connection to the EU's rule about not cutting down forests.

In interviews with Peruvian media, Coupleux stated that the rule intends to stop people from buying products connected to cutting down trees. He explained that this doesn't need new laws, but instead requires being able to trace where goods like coffee, cocoa, and wood come from and ensuring they are produced in a way that protects the environment.

Because they have no more options in their own country's courts, environmental groups are planning to take the case to international courts. They say this decision is a bad example for other countries that want to avoid environmental laws by calling it reform.

For many Indigenous leaders, this law is a serious danger to their land, communities, and traditions.

Julio Cusurichi, a member of the board for a group that helps people in the Peruvian Rainforest, said the new rule will make people more likely to take land illegally and make it harder to protect the environment in areas that are already in danger.

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