Music World’s Dilemma: Balancing Nature and Vivaldi Performances

The music world is holding its breath as the potential ban on Pernambuco wood trade looms at the CITES COP20, focusing on wild species. This red wood, native to Brazil, is considered crucial for crafting bows for all bowed string instruments like violins, violas, and double basses.

During this international conference, running parallel to COP30 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan until December 5, Brazil is pushing to list it in Appendix I of the Convention. The decision could be made at any moment.

Appendix I includes species at risk of extinction, with international trade generally prohibited. Brazil attempted to enforce this ban in 2022 and now appears resolute to see it through this year. If approved, bow makers will lose their primary material, and the distribution of Pernambuco bows would then require special permits.

This Brazilian proposal has musicians trembling. For weeks, orchestras, soloists, and professional groups have been voicing their concerns about the repercussions of such a measure. They fear both the bureaucratic struggles to purchase or travel with their bows and the loss of a material believed to be irreplaceable.

Yet, a few dissenting voices, anonymously, are emerging within the profession. One luthier told Decatur Metro, “Classical music must make the effort to adapt.” Pernambuco (Paubrasilia echinata) only grows in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, an ecosystem now just a fraction of its size after centuries of deforestation.

In a letter to President Emmanuel Macron, the Instrumental Manufacture Trade Union and various musicians’ unions describe a volatile situation: “Without special authorization, these musicians will have to cancel all tours involving their bows… Cut off from their primary material, bow makers would face extinction.“

The organization La Semaine du son also emphasizes the threat to artistic mobility: “Such a measure would cripple the entire instrumental manufacture industry.“

At the heart of these positions is a central argument: Pernambuco has “no substitute that offers the same sound and technical qualities,” as stated in an article published in Le Monde. Its density, elasticity, and resonance are described as essential for accuracy and finesse in performances, particularly in orchestral settings.

Implicitly, there’s a fear of having to perform with “lesser quality” bows made of carbon fiber. Often produced in China, these are more affordable and less sensitive to temperature changes but lack the acoustic properties of Pernambuco, according to musicians.

Since the 16th century, Pernambuco has been exploited for its dye properties and later sought after for bow making from the 18th century. Coffee, sugar, and cocoa plantations, now followed by urbanization and agribusiness, are encroaching on its natural habitat. According to data from the Brazilian embassy, around 527,000 trees have been felled over the centuries, with only about 10,000 adult trees remaining in the wild.

“Music evolves. We shouldn’t drive a species to the brink just to play Vivaldi,” critiques Charlotte Nithart, president of the environmental NGO Robin des Bois. “Pernambuco is a pioneer of overexploitation: since the 16th century, it’s been harvested deeper and deeper in the forest. It has vanished from most of the Atlantic Forest… Its financial value is causing its demise. If it’s still being cut illegally, it’s solely to feed the bow making market.“

The ecologist believes maintaining traditional wood use “stems from a colonial logic applied to an endemic species protected by Brazil.” The organization blames European countries for not keeping any of the promises made in 2022, when the European Union had three years to establish a traceability system: “Since 2007, we’ve been promised a robust system. Nothing has been done.” According to her, moving to Appendix I would at least “provide a clear picture of the legal stocks” and block access to illegal wood.

For bow makers and luthiers, the survival of an already vulnerable trade hangs in the balance. “It’s not the 150 bow makers in the northern hemisphere that are destroying Brazil’s forests…,” says Emmanuel Carrier, a bow maker since 2010. “It’s being destroyed by real estate pressure, by the agricultural industry. We maybe use about 1 ton of wood in a lifetime.“

“If the ban passes, every bow sold will require authorization. If I have to go through this process thirty times a year, it’s going to be a bit complicated,” he laments.

Like his peers, he only works with legal stocks dating back before 2007, when the wood was listed in Appendix II — restrictive but more lenient than Appendix I. These limited, aging reserves could be depleted if access to replanted wood remains blocked by Brazil.

Since 2000, bow makers worldwide, with the help of Brazilian associations, have united under the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative (IPCI) to replant “seedlings of 340,000 trees.” “We are very aware of the rare and precious nature of the resource,” the craftsman assures.

The profession, though united, is not without dissent. A small minority of luthiers and bow makers advocate for a radically different approach. Three of them penned an op-ed — “Luthiers and bow makers for alternatives to Pernambuco” — still unpublished. They choose not to attach their names to it.

They faced immediate hostility at the Glaaf, a specialized annual congress on the weekend of November 21 in Mirecourt: flyers were torn down, reactions were aggressive, and professional pressure made “expressing a differing opinion” risky.

They support Brazil’s proposal and want to organize a transition to other wood types now. According to them, the profession refuses to face the ecological issue and the global responsibility of the international market. “The trade is entrenched in its position and is not at all considering a transition,” summarizes the craftsman we spoke to on the phone.

The argument that their consumption is “minimal” ignores the realities on the ground, he says: whole trees are felled with 90% of the wood ending up unusable, trafficking documented by Brazilian authorities — 292,000 sticks and bows, and 395 logs, were seized between 2018 and 2024 — and monoculture plantations that, according to sources they cite, are unable to restore an already highly fragile ecosystem.

“We believe that Brazil is the only one who can decide what they do with their resources and their ecosystem,” he states. He also contests the argument of Pernambuco’s irreplaceability: “The sound of Pernambuco isn’t better, it’s just what we’re used to.“

Behind the current crisis, these artisans see an opportunity to rethink a stagnant model: to move away from an 18th-century acoustic standard, incorporate contemporary environmental constraints, and open up a field of artistic experimentation.