
Travel – Sixty percent 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 amounting to $60,000.
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My initial reaction is to say that as long as the integrity of those who are proposing, enacting, and enforcing this legislation is impeccable, there seems to be no problem with this. Bona fide eco-tourism, scientific investigation, anthropological study, and the like would be unaffected, merely subject to scrutiny and the issuing of internal visas.
Any legislation which sought to protect the forests of the Amazon basin, the world's principal "lung" should be supported.
But hopefully, any controls brought into force would not be subject to abuse, i.e., protecting internal over-exploitation, away from the eyes of a prying world.