Seeing the wood for the trees

With the Brazilian police ramping up its efforts to combat pernambuco trafficking, what could the effects be on the international bow trade?

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It takes up to 40 years for a pernambuco tree to mature

COURTESY IPCI

An ongoing criminal investigation in Brazil into the illegal trafficking of pernambuco has highlighted the continuing threat to a species prized by bow makers and string players around the world. At the end of November 2021 Brazil’s federal police launched an operation to gather evidence in the fight against criminal elements profiting from the international sale of bows made from illegally sourced pernambuco. Twenty search warrants were issued and executed in the southeastern state of Espírito Santo, but no details of any arrests or charges have so far been released.

The police operation was supported by agents from the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) and also officials from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the US being one of the major destinations for Brazilian bows made with illegally sourced pernambuco. According to the police, their investigation began after inspections carried out by IBAMA led to the seizure of more than 42,000 bow sticks and 150 short pernambuco logs. In 2018, in an operation targeting nine companies in Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais and São Paulo, IBAMA agents seized 20,800 violin bows, dismantled an illegal sawmill and issued fines totalling BRL9.7m (£1.4m).

Pernambuco, or pau brasil, is Brazil’s national tree and has been listed as an endangered plant species by IBAMA since 1992. Various replanting initiatives have been undertaken, including a programme by the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative (IPCI), an association founded by leading bow makers, which has been responsible for planting more than 250,000 seedlings since 2005. But with trees taking 30 to 40 years to produce heartwood suitable for bow making, conservation and protection remain a priority, especially as the tree’s natural habitat, the coastal Mata Atlântica (Atlantic Forest) is under pressure from urbanisation and commercial activity. In 2007 CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) recognised the need for closer controls on the international trade in pernambuco by adding the wood to its Appendix II listing, meaning that any exports must have appropriate CITES documentation issued by Brazilian authorities. Importantly, however, the listing included an annotation exempting finished products, such as violin bows.

New York-based bow maker Yung Chin, one of the founders of the IPCI, was shocked by the number of bows and sticks involved in the Brazilian investigation, but says: ‘With the proliferation of bow making companies in Brazil in recent decades, and the huge numbers of bows being produced, it’s just not possible that every bow coming out of the country is made from legally sourced wood.’ Extracting wood from conservation areas is strictly prohibited, and it is this illegal activity that is under scrutiny from the authorities.

‘It’s just not possible that every bow coming out of the country is made from legally sourced wood’

‘It’s important that the situation is brought under control,’ says Chin, ‘because if not, a decision will be made to make things more restrictive with regards to pernambuco.’ What could this mean for the international bow trade? German bow maker Klaus Grünke, another IPCI founder member, says: ‘I can foresee that CITES might take off the annotation for finished products. So we could end up with a situation similar to rosewood, where the finished product is under CITES regulation but there is an exemption for travelling musicians. In the future you might have to sell a bow with its respective CITES registration number, and musicians could need this as part of a legal framework for owning a bow.’

A strengthening of international restrictions may not be needed if Brazil were to implement some form of export controls on violin bows, suggests John Bennett, an American lawyer and environmental specialist who has advised violin and bow making organisations including the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers (AFVBM) and the Entente Internationale des Luthiers et Archetiers (EILA) on CITES and endangered species issues. ‘A domestic regulation requiring finished products leaving Brazil to have an export document could remedy much of the problem,’ he says. But he adds: ‘I think the burden also needs to shift to the demand side, exploring what can be done to educate and inform musicians and retailers.’

Such a shift echoes a plea from IBAMA environmental analyst Roberto Cabral Borges, who warned at the time of the 2018 operation: ‘It is essential for artists always to inform themselves about the origin of the wood used in their instruments.’ He was speaking as much about guitars made out of Brazilian rosewood – an endangered species listed on CITES’s Appendix I since 1992 – as about bows made from illegally sourced pernambuco. Without some kind of certification, however, the question of how a potential purchaser of a bow could guarantee that the wood it is made from was sourced legally in Brazil remains unclear. But the IPCI and associations including EILA, the AFVBM and the International Alliance of Violin and Bow Makers for Endangered Species stressed, in a digital poster that was recently circulated to draw attention to the Brazilian investigation: ‘It is critically important that we become informed and avoid participation in activities that break the law and threaten the species.’