Brazil launches defense program for Amazon jungle

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) -- Brazil announced on Wednesday a far-reaching, $435 million program to free the Amazon jungle from the grip of drug traffickers, loggers and miners operating deep in the world's largest rainforest.

The program, dubbed "ProAmazonia," will send police fanning out across the 1.9 million square miles (five million square km) of the Brazilian Amazon, a vast swath of land roughly seven times the size of France.

"The plan will allow the development of an air surveillance and patrol system in this region, which is where we are most vulnerable," said Getulio Bezerra, head of federal police counter-narcotics operations.

The program is one of many announced in recent months aiming to rein in lawless regions of the impenetrable Amazon, including a border control program, known as "Operation Cobra," and the creation of a $1.4 billion radar surveillance system.

The timing is no accident. Neighboring Colombia's $7.5 billion offensive on the drugs trade has sparked fears in Brazil that traffickers and even rebel violence will spill over its border into the Amazon.

Meanwhile, worries have resurfaced over the dizzying pace of destruction of the jungle -- which is home to 50 percent of the globe's animal and plant species and extends into Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia and Peru.

Last year, illegal logging and farming destroyed an area of Brazil's Amazon bigger than Hawaii, according to government figures.

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