Peru has some of the richest and largest tracts of intact tropical rain forest in the world. They harbor threatened tree species of high commercial value such as mahogany and cedar, and also provide habitat for wildlife such as the highly threatened jaguar, the harpy eagle, and the giant river otter. Sadly, however, these forests are being lost at an alarming rate of 260,000 hectares per year.

In May 2001, acting together with local Peruvian environmental organisations and WWF-US Conservation Action Network activists, Panda Passport holders from around the world sent thousands of e-mails to the President of Peru, helping convince him to reject a bill that would have gutted a vital nationwide forest management law.

By rejecting the proposed bill, President Paniagua kept in place the current forest management law which requires that foresters prepare management plans and that forest concessions be granted through a transparent, public bidding process. These requirements are helping to ensure that the forests of the Peruvian Amazon are managed in a way that conserves biological diversity and maintains ecosystem functioning, while providing sustainable economic resources to the local populations whose livelihoods are critically linked to forestry.

When another threat arose in May 2002, WWF-US Conservation Action Network activists sprang into action again, this time sending tens of thousands of messages with only a day's notice. These messages helped defeat an attempt by several members of Peru's congress to undermine the sustainable forestry law. The motion was defeated and efforts to safeguard millions of hectares of the richest and largest tracts of intact tropical rain forest on Earth are back on track.

A Setback for Sustainable Forestry
Unfortunately, the current president of Peru dealt conservationists a setback in early 2003 by extending--for one state in Peru--permits for small-scale logging. The small-scale permits provide a huge loophole for illegal and unsustainable logging. As long as the small-scale permits remain an option, larger, sustainable forest concessions will not be economically viable.

WWF is concerned that the extension may set a dangerous precedent. We will keep you posted. Thanks for your efforts to save the Peruvian rain forest.

The Vistula River is one of the most important rivers for nature conservation in Europe. From a biological point of view, it can be described as the 'ecological backbone' of Poland.

WWF applauds the Polish Parliament’s refusal to allocate public spending on building the Nieszawa Dam in the Lower Vistula. WWF hopes that this decision will put Poland on a new track for water management, moving from river-regulation projects to implementation of integrated river basin management, in line with the requirements of the EU’s key water law: The Water Framework Directive.

WWF has worked on the Nieszawa Dam case for the last three years. In 2001, WWF published a comprehensive analysis which showed that the dam would not be the best technical solution to address problems caused by the aging Wloclawek Dam. Moreover, the new dam would also cause significant damage to the environment and negatively affect the sustainable development of the whole Vistula river valley.