Pernambuco, the Brazilian wood used for bows of stringed instruments, has been classed since 2007 as endangered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Trade in in the wood is permitted but tightly regulated.
Now CITES is considering upgrading protection of Pernambuco to its highest level, which would prohibit trade except under even stricter terms.
This would make it nearly impossible to make new bows from the wood, and existing bows “unsellable and untradeable,” says Eva-Maria Tomasi, a violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic and member if its orchestra board.
“Pernambuco had precisely the properties needed for an ideal bow – density, robustness, resilience and, simultaneously, elasticity and flexibility. Only this wood offers that unique combination,” Tomasi explains in an interview posted on the orchestra’s website. “Almost all high-quality bows have been crafted from Pernambuco for the past 250 years. Although carbon bows are being developed today, they aren’t comparable in quality.”
The violinist fears that “musicians who already own bows would be severely affected – particularly when traveling. Each musician would require their own CITES document for their bow, presented and stamped at each border crossing.”
The International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative, founded in 1999, has supported reforestation, crackdowns on illegal trade, and “continued use of existing bows and the crafting of new bows from sustainably-grown Pernambuco,” Tomasi says. “Whether this will remain possible is currently under discussion – clearly an enormously important question for musicians and orchestras.”
The full interview:
http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/stories/interview-about-pernambuco-with-eva-maria-tomasi/
(via http://slippedisc.com)
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