Brazil wants approval for all foreigners heading to Amazon

Brasilia: Sixty per cent of Brazil could soon be off-limits to foreigners who don't get special permission to visit the world's largest tropical wilderness.

Those caught in the Amazon without a permit granted by military and justice authorities could face a fine of $60,000 (Dh220,200).

The government plans to send Congress a Bill to require the permits within months, said National Justice Secretary Romeu Tuma Jr.

The Bill is designed to prevent foreign meddling and illegal activity. It would cover all activity in the area Brazil considers the "legal Amazon" - including nature tours, business trips or visits to any cities across 5.2 million square km.

"We want to establish the Amazon as ours," Tuma said. "We want the world to visit the region. But we want them to tell us when they're coming and what they're going to do." Under the Bill, foreigners caught travelling or living in the Amazon without a permit could be fined up to 100,000 reals ($60,000).

The Bill reflects suspicions among conservative politicians and the military that foreign nongovernmental organisations working to help Indians and save the rain forest are actually attempting to wrest the Amazon and its riches away from Brazil.

"We have information that some international groups disguised as NGOs have come to carry out bioprospecting and have entered public and indigenous lands to try and influence their cultures," Tuma said. "There is piracy and the theft of [traditional] knowledge in the region."

Bioprospecting refers to the search for plants or other organisms that might have medical or commercial uses.