"This is a very serious worry for us," said Alvaro Masquez Salvador, a lawyer who works with Indigenous people at the Legal Defense Institute in Peru.

Masquez also said the change creates a worrying example because it makes land private that, according to Peru's constitution, belongs to the country. He added that forests are not private and should belong to the whole nation.

Those 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 politician Maria Zeta Chunga, who strongly supported the law, for their comments. Only one person from the farming industry answered, saying they did not want to comment.

Peru has the second largest area of Amazon rainforest after Brazil. This area is over 70 million hectares, which is about 60% of Peru's land, according to the organization Rainforest Trust. It is a region with a great variety of life and is home to over 50 groups of Indigenous people, some of whom live apart from others by choice. These groups are important protectors of the environment, and the forests they look after help keep the world's climate steady by taking in large amounts of carbon dioxide, a gas that causes climate change.

A law made in 2011 said you needed the state's permission and environmental checks before changing how forest land was used. But recent changes have made these rules weaker. The newest change lets landowners and companies avoid getting permission, and it even makes past cutting down of trees legal.

Peru's Constitutional Court supported the change after lawyers challenged it. While the court removed some parts, it kept the final rule that makes past illegal land changes legal. Experts say this is the most risky part.

In its decision, the court said that Indigenous groups should have been asked about changes to the law and confirmed that the Environment Ministry is responsible for dividing forests into zones.

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

The effort to make this change is similar to what happened in Brazil under President Jair Bolsonaro. There, political and economic groups worked together to reduce environmental rules to help farming businesses. In Brazil, strong farming companies were very organized and pushed for these changes. In Peru, the groups involved are not as organized but are still strong.

In Peru, major support comes from large farming businesses, people who illegally take land, and those connected to illegal mining and drug dealing. Small and medium farmers who are concerned about protecting their land have also become part of this effort.

We see that legal and illegal groups are starting to work together, said Vladimir Pinto from Amazon Watch, 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" that these changes are needed to follow new European Union rules. These rules will soon make companies importing things like soy, beef, and palm oil show that these products did not come from land where trees were cut down illegally.

She said that if products from illegal logging are later made legal and sold, it will make rules about demand, like those in the EU, less effective.

This sends a bad message to world markets and makes it harder 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, stated that recent changes to the law are not related to the EU's rule on stopping deforestation.

In interviews with Peruvian news, Coupleux stated the law aims to stop buying products connected to cutting down forests. He added that this does not need new laws, but instead needs to track and prove products like coffee, cocoa, and wood are made in a sustainable way.

Since they have no more legal options in their own country, civil society groups are planning to take the case to international courts. They warn that this decision is a dangerous example for other countries that want to avoid environmental laws by saying they are making 'reforms'.

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

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

"For a long time, our communities have protected our lands and the whole planet," Cusurichi said.