Alternative measures

With pernambuco in danger of being permanently off limits to bow makers, could another Brazilian hardwood – ipê – be the solution?

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An ipê tree flowering in the state of Pará, Brazil

DANIEL BELTRA/GREENPEACE

As illegal poaching of pernambuco in its native Atlantic Forest habitat continues, exports of pernambuco bows from Brazil have been prohibited. Under regulations from the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) the country’s bow makers have switched their work to alternative woods such as ipê (a blanket term for species of the genus Handroanthus). Ipê is promoted as a sustainable option, but as one of the world’s hardest woods, it is in great demand as a decking material, and its high market value makes it particularly vulnerable to illegal logging. At the 19th CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)

Conference of the Parties (CoP) in November 2022, ipê joined pernambuco on the CITES Appendix II listing of species threatened by overexploitation, although the new listing came with an implementation deadline of 24 months. As well as requiring CITES permits for exports of wood from Brazil, the new controls could also affect ipê supply and prices more widely; some new Brazilian-made ipê bows are already selling for nearly as much as their pernambuco predecessors.

As a wood for bow making, ipê compares favourably to pernambuco in its physical and mechanical characteristics, including density, hardness, modulus of elasticity (a measure of stiffness) and speed of sound propagation. American bow maker Lynn Hannings, a past president of the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative USA, says: ‘My experience with two ipê bows is that they were strong, with correct weights and balances, and they produced a very bright sound. But when it comes to the use of ipê, I don’t see it as a long-term solution as it comes from the same depleted rainforest environment as pernambuco.’ As existing stocks of pernambuco, in the hands of artisanal bow makers, continue to service the needs of professional players and the highest-level advanced students, Hannings advocates a move away from tropical hardwoods for new mass-produced or student-level bows. In the Spring 2024 edition of the Journal of the American Viola Society, she wrote: ‘To support efforts to protect pernambuco and its habitat, I recommend we transition to non-pernambuco, non-wood alternatives or restore existing bows exclusively for bows under $1,000. This would include all student bows, fractional and full-size bows for school departments, rental programmes and beginners of all ages.’

The CITES listing for ipê implies a similar threat risk as that for pernambuco, but such a picture has been disputed. Daniel Neves, president of Anafima, the Brazilian music industry association, says: ‘Unlike pernambuco, ipê is abundant across Brazil.’ CITES blanket-listed 35 Handroanthus species at CoP19 along with two other genera of flowering Trumpet trees, but although some of the Handroanthus species are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as endangered or near-threatened, others are listed as of least concern. Whereas Brazil proposed unsuccessfully at CoP19 to have pernambuco upgraded to the most restrictive Appendix I listing, it strongly opposed the proposal to add ipê to Appendix II, with Brazil’s delegate at the debate arguing: ‘Ipê is not even on the verge of being threatened in our country. Almost all our exports of ipê come from sustainable management projects approved and monitored by our government. Trade is not contributing to the decline of the ipê population in our country; quite the opposite. Sustainable management projects are a part of our policy to keep the forest up, to avoid deforestation. When we create new bureaucracy and barriers to trade and when we increase costs, we are discouraging these projects. We are allowing for people who live in the forest to look for other ways of surviving.’

‘When it comes to the use of ipê, I don’t see it as a long-term solution’ –

Ipê trees grow slowly and in extremely low densities: according to some estimates, mature trees occur only once in every three to ten hectares of natural forest. While reduced-impact logging practices aim to limit forest degradation, the increased demand for the wood on the international market has led to concerns over sustainability and has fuelled illegal logging, which harms forest biodiversity and ecosystems. A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability in July 2023 (bit.ly/3Uq3s9I) found that in the period 2009–19 three-quarters of all ipê from Pará, the top producing region in Brazil, may have been harvested illegally. The study mapped illegality risks at different stages of the timber supply chain, analysing risks due to missing or invalid logging permits, overstated ipê yields or discrepancies resulting from missing inflows of legal timber. The study’s authors identified numerous loopholes in Brazil’s traceability systems that could be exploited by those intent on laundering illegally logged timber. However, at the end of 2022, IBAMA introduced an enhanced traceability system called DOF+ Traceability, which implements a consistent coding of timber products to allow for full traceability from harvest to consumption or export. Neves says that members of Anafima are now working ipê through this system. ‘DOF+ Traceability requires additional paperwork and more rigorous inspections,’ he adds, ‘and is extremely necessary for greater control over the entire supply chain.’