Palawan’s Subterranean River Natural Park is still second in ranking to Amazon Rainforest, but it is well positioned to fight for a spot among the Top 77 nominees in the New7Wonders of Nature global campaign.

At midnight of July 7, voting for the Top 77 nominees will stop to choose the 21 official finalists for the new set of Seven Wonders of Nature.

From 261 entries at present, the Top 77 New7Wonders of Nature will be announced on July 7, as determined by votes cast by the world’s population.

The top 11 in each of the seven groups will be eligible for consideration by the New7Wonders of Nature panel of experts.

At that point, voting will begin for the third and final stage of the one-billion-vote campaign to choose the Official New7Wonders of Nature.

The final declaration of the new set of Seven Wonders of Nature will be in 2011.

Zurich-based New Seven Wonders (N7W) Foundation said many other ranking changes are possible in the coming final week of the second stage in this global campaign, as over 260 locations compete to become one of the Top 77 eligible for the selection of finalists.

As of June 29, Amazon Rainforest (Bolivia/Brazil/Colombia/Ecuador/French Guiana/Guyana/Peru/ Suriname/Venezuela), which received the most number of telephone and online votes, still leads 54 other entries under the category forest, natural parks, and nature reserves.

The Amazon Rainforest dominated the said category for two weeks, which used to be led by Philippines’ entry Subterranean River Natural Park for several months.

Amazon Rainforest, which is an entry shared by several nations, has taken over the lead based on the live ranking posted on the New7Wonders website www.new7wonders.com.

The Amazon Rainforest, also known as Amazonia, the Amazon jungle, or the Amazon Basin, encompasses seven million square kilometers, though the forest itself occupies some 5.5 million square kilometers, located within nine nations, representing over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.

Meanwhile, Subterranean River National Park currently ranks second to the Amazon Rainforest.

The tourist attraction in Puerto Princesa City is known as the world’s longest passable underground river, which measures 8.2 kilometers of winding stretch that passes through a cave with major formations of stalactites and stalagmites.

Other entries closely following Amazon Rainforest and Subterranean River in the live ranking posted on the New Seven Wonders Foundation (N7W) website are Sundarbans Delta (India/Bangladesh); Tree of Life (Bahrain); Black Forest (Germany); Christmas Island (Australia); Eua National Park (Tonga); Bialowieza Forest (Belarus/Poland); Komodo National Park (Indonesia); Dinosaur Provincial Park (Canada); and El Kala National Park (Algeria).

Aside from forest, natural parks and nature reserves category, the six other categories, from where the seven new wonders of nature will be chosen, are landscapes and ice formations; islands; mountains and volcanoes; caves, rock formations and valleys; lakes, rivers and waterfalls; and seascapes.