Peru came late to conservation. Neighboring states in South America created national parks as early as 1903, but it was not until the late 1960s that Peruvian bureaucrats began to feel pressure, both politically and ecologically, to set aside particular landscapes as distinct from development plans and modernization schemes. The general places to do so seemed obvious—one each in the three paradigmatic regions of parks was not clear. In order to decide this, a Kenyan wildlife consultant, Ian Grimwood, was invited by the elite Peruvian conservationist Felipe Benavides Barreda to provide expertise to the government courtesy of the British Ministry of Foreign Development. Grimwood's report became a template for Peru's rapid creation of conservation areas during the Cold War, which included the creation of seven national parks by 1988.