Professor Gomez stresses the rate at which the tropical forest, the environment of possibly 80% of known ferns, is projected to disappear over the next 20 years. He asks the question ‘Who will act?’, and intimates that the International Association of Pteridologists (I.A.P.) may take a role in developing a strategy. In the discussion following Gomez' paper, Clive Jermy, Chairman of the I.A.P., summarised the proposals put forward by the Association's Working Party on Conservation (Convenor, David R. Given). As those proposals are complementary to Professor Gomez' remarks and indicate what positive actions are being taken, they are included here.