4th December 2025
CITES CoP20 in Samarkand has made its decision on Paubrasilia echinata. The full text of the Draft Decisions (which were adopted with only a few minor changes) is here. The revised annotation, which was adopted with no changes, is below:
Retain Appendix II listing with the following revision to Annotation 10:
All parts and derivatives, except finished musical instruments, finished musical instrument accessories and finished musical instrument parts for non-commercial trade only for the purpose of paid and unpaid performance, personal use, display, loan, competition, teaching, appraisal, or repair, provided that this does not change the ownership and that such transport is not for sale, transfer or disposal of the specimen outside of the owner’s usual State of residence. Zero quota for wild-harvested specimens (source code W) traded for commercial purposes.
The impact of this ruling will be widespread and can be broken down into three different areas:
1. New bowmaking: The use of pernambuco/brazilwood by contemporary bowmakers is the focus of Brazil’s concern and the reason why they wanted Paubrasilia echinata to be placed on Appendix I. The CITES Draft Decisions are therefore mainly concerned with management of wood stockpiles and the continuing use of pernambuco to make new bows. The undertakings outlined in the Draft Decisions are wide-ranging and Brazil will be watching closely to see whether they are implemented. It is now the responsibility of CITES, bowmakers and the IPCI to act on the Draft Decisions. If Brazil doesn’t feel that its concerns are being taken seriously we will have a re-run of this whole fiasco in at the next CITES CoP in November 2028.
2. Musicians: Musicians travelling internationally are, thankfully, largely exempted by the annotation and will not have to use CITES permits when travelling for performance etc. They also will not need MICs (Musical Instrument Certificates) for pernambuco bows. However, the restrictions on commercial trade will have a detrimental impact on the ability of musicians to choose and buy bows.
3. Commercial Trade: This ruling could bring serious collateral damage for anyone buying or selling violin bows across international borders. This includes shops, dealers, auction houses and anyone selling a bow privately across an international border. The ruling appears to cover not just contemporary bows, which could conceivably have been made from illegally harvested wood, but also antique bows made long before Paubrasilia echinata was first listed by CITES in 2007 and before Brazil enacted domestic legislation about wood harvesting in 1992. The ruling is particularly significant for the UK as it is historically the heart of the violin and bow trade. Moreover, because Brexit has isolated us from the EU, the CITES ruling will cover bows sold between the UK and the EU as well as those sold worldwide. Implementation is due to take place in early March 2026.
The situation is Kafkaesque as the sale of antique bows has no bearing whatsoever on the prospects for the Pau-Brasil tree. We are committed to continuing to serve our customers in the UK, the EU and further afield. We have offered to work with the UK authorities in looking for ways to reduce what will be a tsunami of permit applications landing on their desks. There may also be legal challenges to the implication that a CITES ruling can legitimately restrict the sale of pre-convention material.
We do not expect any major shift in prices for bows, because musicians will not be restricted in the normal course of travelling with bows. If you have queries about our future plans please contact us.