Conservationists want to protect brazilwood. So why are musicians alarmed?

Brazil's proposal

The contented is acceptable to travel to a caput adjacent week, arsenic the Convention connected International Trade successful Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) holds its 20th meeting.

Heightened restrictions connected brazilwood are scheduled to beryllium raised for a ballot astatine the conference.

Since 1998, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the histrion arsenic endangered.

But a proposal authored by the Brazilian authorities would summation CITES protections for brazilwood, placing it successful the highest tier for commercialized restrictions.

CITES regulates the planetary commercialized of endangered species, and it classifies animals and plants successful 3 appendices.

The 3rd is the slightest restrictive: If a taxon is endangered successful a fixed country, past export permits are required from that country.

The Appendix II has tighter standards: Export permits are required from wherever the taxon is extracted. Most endangered species, including brazilwood, autumn into this category.

But Brazil hopes to bump brazilwood up to appendix one, a class for taxon faced with extinction.

Trade of plants and animals successful that appendix is mostly banned, but for non-commercial use. But adjacent successful that case, some import and export licences are required.

In its proposal, Brazil argues the upgraded restrictions are indispensable to combat the plant's extinction.

Only astir 10,000 big brazilwood trees remain. The colonisation has shrunk by 84 percent implicit the past 3 generations, and illegal logging has played a ascendant relation successful that decline, according to the proposal.

"Selective extraction of Brazilwood is inactive active, some wrong and extracurricular protected areas," the connection explains.

"In each cases precocious detected, the destination of these woods is the bow-making manufacture for philharmonic instruments."

It adds that “520 years of aggravated exploitation” person led to the “complete elimination of the taxon successful respective regions”.

One cognition launched by Brazilian constabulary successful October 2018 resulted successful 45 companies and bowmakers being fined.

Nearly 292,000 bows and blanks — the unfinished blocks of wood destined to go bows — were seized.

Another investigation, betwixt 2021 and 2022, led constabulary to reason that an estimated $46m successful profits had travel from the amerciable brazilwood trade.

“The bulk of bows and bow blanks sold by Brazilian companies implicit the past 25 years astir apt originated from amerciable sources," Brazil wrote successful its proposal.