Fate of iconic, and endangered, Brazilwood pits musical tradition against conservation

The tree with deep red wood and yellow flowers that gave Brazil its name is disappearing. Native to the Atlantic Rainforest and exclusive to Brazilian soil, the number of Paubrasilia echinata still standing today has fallen to something around 10,000 trees spaced out along the coast between Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Norte states — an 84% drop in numbers over the last three generations of the trees. These figures are from the National Center for Flora Conservation (CNCFlora), which escalated the species’ conservation status in 2024 from endangered to critically endangered.

During Portuguese colonial rule, it was the Brazilwood trees’ vivid color that nearly brought about their demise: more than 500,000 of them were cut down to meet European demand for red dye for fabrics. In the 19th century, the wood’s resonance, durability and flexibility were found to have the perfect balance for making bows for stringed musical instruments, placing the trees at the mercy of another market.

“The Brazilwood tree is really in a critical situation,” Felipe Bernardino Guimarães, an environmental analyst with IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, told Mongabay. A national expert on wood identification, Guimarães wrote his master’s thesis on fraudulent Brazilwood sales.

To save its national tree, Brazil is proposing stricter rules under CITES, the global convention on the wild plant and animal trade, for the sale of the wood and items made from it.

Brazilian environmental authorities are asking that Brazilwood be included in Appendix I of the convention, which would prohibit its commercial international trade. According to the proposal, which will be evaluated at the next CITES conference scheduled for November in Uzbekistan, the measure “would reinforce trade restrictions with the goal to reduce the pressure on the remaining native Paubrasilia echinata population.”

This is the most recent chapter in a long story that began in 2007, when the tree was included in CITES Appendix II, which is less rigid than Appendix I, allowing for some regulated international trade. Observers say this listing, which sets out requirements for exports and a special license issued by IBAMA, has been unsuccessful in stopping the illegal harvest and trade of the wood.

This is because the rules specifically address wood in the form of logs, cut or in sticks, which are later crafted into bows by artisanal bowmakers or archetiers. The finished bows, however, don’t fall under the ruling.

“At the time, the bows remained exempt because of pressure from the music sector,” Guimarães said. Compounding the problem, he said, the Brazilian authorities had no idea how many bows were even being sold, as the final product doesn’t require the issuance of a certificate of provenance — or DOF, proving it comes from a legal source — like the raw wood itself does. “We had no controls. Companies were selling bows by the truckload and we had no idea how many there actually were.”

The situation became clear in 2018 through Operation Do-Re-Mi, conducted jointly by IBAMA and the Brazilian Federal Police. Agents discovered that loggers were illegally cutting down Brazilwood trees in protected forests in Bahia state and selling the wood to bowmakers in neighboring Espírito Santo state, where most Brazilian bowmakers are based. In other cases, business owners used documentation from commercial Brazilwood plantations, where logging is legal, to cover for trees that were illegally cut from the wild — a practice known as timber laundering. The operation led to about 45 people and companies being fined and IBAMA seizing more than 290,000 bows and sticks.

The scandal brought to light the need for stricter regulation of the sector, and at the subsequent CITES summit in 2022, Brazil succeeded in pushing through a rule change that would make the trade in finished bows also subject to Appendix II restrictions.

Since then, however, another loophole has become apparent: the restrictions only apply to the exporting nation — that is, Brazil. Bows made in other countries from wood smuggled out of Brazil aren’t subject to those same controls.

“The national industry was subject to rigid controls over bows, but overseas industries weren’t,” Guimarães said. This allowed trafficking of Brazilwood to continue: passengers at airports across the country were caught trying to leave with suitcases full of Brazilwood sticks. “If we’re sending sticks, it’s because someone out there is receiving them,” Guimarães said.

With the latest proposal to list Brazilwood trees in CITES Appendix I, the plan is that all countries that are party to the convention will take measures to prohibit the sale of the wood and its products. If implemented as planned, this means Brazilwood, whether in raw or finished form, would only be permitted to cross borders subject to proof that the wood was harvested before the date of the accord, or that the material’s origin had been approved by environmental agencies and registered with CITES.

“Ideally, the [trade in] bows will start being controlled in the rest of the world,” Guimarães said. “And the authorities are going to have to sift through and keep careful watch on the stock that’s being declared overseas.”

Brazil’s proposal is supported by 30 different entities and professionals with connections to the musical instrument world. They published a letter in which they said they “recognize that the type of trade currently in practice is unsustainable and could inadvertently contribute to the illegal trade of wood, threatening not only the species, but also the integrity of their own art.” The letter also calls for a legal framework to simplify regulations for commercial Brazilwood plantations, to ensure a legal supply of the timber.

The wood used to make bows for violins, cellos and other bowed string instruments comes from the heartwood, the dense inner core of the Brazilwood tree. Studies estimate that about 90% of the wood is thrown out during the bowmaking process; cracks, knots or irregular grain render much of the wood useless for the demanding musical instrument market. Once made into a bow, a stick that would sell for the equivalent of less than $10 in Brazil can fetch at least $500 overseas, Guimarães said. And if it’s the work of a famous archetier, a bow can sell for as much as $10,000.

There’s much debate among specialists and musicians about the use of other types of wood to make bows. “Substituting Brazilwood would compromise centuries of sound tradition,” Daniel Neves, president of Brazil’s National Music Industry Association (ANAFIMA), wrote in an opinion column in O Globo. On the other side, some insist that other types of wood like ipê (genus Handroanthus) or itaúba (Mezilaurus itauba), both of which are more common than Brazilwood, are just as good as the national tree species.

“Musicians are part of this problem,” Guimarães said. “The industry needs to understand that there are other options and that, as long as we are voraciously using Brazilwood, more trees will be cut in protected forests.”

This story was first published here in Portuguese on Aug. 4, 2025.

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Xavier Bartaburu Editor

Maya Johnson
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