In a series of forest fires, which during March and April 2003 swept uncontrollably through the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the north of Guatemala, thousands of hec-tares of tropical rainforest were lost to the flames. Laguna del Tigre National Park was virtually razed. ParksWatch documented the destruction firsthand.

The recently declared Alto Purus National Park harbors more than 2 million hectares of primary forest in the upper Amazon.

This ParksWatch documentary explores the inner reaches of this virtually unexplored territory and the pervasive threats to its biological riches.

Illegal logging of bigleaf mahogany trees (Swietenia macrophylla) in Peru’s Alto Purús NP and adjacent lands continues despite national laws and international regu-lations protecting this species, indigenous people and natural areas. This activity is detri-mental to the region's eco-systems, indigenous groups (incl. uncontacted tribes), and global biodiversity.

Before beginning their long journey to the Atlantic, four of the largest rivers in the Amazon basin - the Madeira, Purús, Juruá and Ucayali - originate as streams in the low hills of the Fitzcarrald Arch in southeastern Peru. These remote and inacces-sible headwaters constitute the largest remaining wilder-ness area in the megadi-verse southwestern Amazon, and one of the top conservation priorities in Peru and worldwide. An area of more than 2,5 million ha within this region was recently declared a National Park, creating the largest strictly-protected area in the Amazon basin by linking adjacent Manu NP with protected areas in Brazil.

The Yavarí forests in north-eastern Peru are recognized as priority conservation areas for Peru's System of Protec-ted Areas, but still lack legal protection status. In support of the declaration of this area as a Reserved Zone (transi-tory category) until sufficient information exists for the creation of a permanent protected area, PW conducted a socio-environmental study of this isolated region.

The 2,8 million ha Yasuní Biosphere Reserve in eastern Ecuador faces serious pro-blems - linked to oil explora-tion and extraction - putting its conservation objectives at theat if no immediate actions are taken. In 2004 PW carried out a rapid evaluation of the area to establish an indepen-dent diagnosis against which to benchmark future evalua-tions and to serve as a baseline for monitoring pur-poses.

In May (2005), Director of ParksWatch-Peru Diego Shoobridge conducted a rapid evaluation of Podocarpus National Park, located in the southernmost section of Ecuador. In this article he presents a summary of his findings.

During its 2005 evaluation of the Madidi-Amboró Conserva-tion Corridor, PW-Bolivia field-tested an adaptation of the WWF/World Bank Tracking Tool by Conservation International. This report synthesizes the findings and discusses a GIS-based monitoring methodology envisioned as a complemen-tary method to the Tracking Tool.

In February 2006, PW-Mexico was contracted by USAID and Conservation International Mexico to assess the level of participation of several communities of the Selva Lacandona in forest fire abatement activities and their perception of the initiatives being deployed.