Brazilwood Day: the importance of remembering its history and ensuring its future

In 1500, Portuguese sailors arrived in a land named ‘Pindorama’ by many of its indigenous natives, which later came to be called Brazil. The official name of our country is taught in schools, always mentioning the tree known as pau-brasil (brazilwood), scientifically known as Paubrasilia echinata. In colonial times, one of the main characteristics that caught the attention of the colonisers was the high abundance and diversity of native species, including this tree, the pau-brasil, whose name is due to the intense red colour of its trunk, due to the presence of a pigment now called brasilin. This colouring of the trunk was compared to the colour of burning wood, as in a brazier. Hence the name brazilwood. The reason for naming the country after the tree today reminds us of the high biodiversity of this land, but in the colonial period it was in fact related to the intense exploitation of this species, responsible for the first great Brazilian economic cycle, for the extraction of its pigment and the use of its wood. Today, unfortunately, the once abundant pau-brasil is a species classified as being at high risk of extinction (CNCFlora), and it is estimated that more than half a million trees of this species have been cut down since then.

At the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden Research Institute (JBRJ), the tree is present in its various scientific collections, as well as in the arboretum, where visitors can contemplate the beauty and grandeur of live individuals, planted as a conservation strategy, called ex situ (outside their natural environment). Also as part of ex situ conservation, samples of seeds, tissues and DNA from the brazilwood are stored in special laboratory conditions. Samples of dried and flowering branches (exsiccata), fruit and samples of brazilwood are also part of the JBRJ's scientific collection. At the JBRJ, this species is still the target of various scientific studies in the Scientific Research Directorate, from reviewing its taxonomic identification, its evolutionary origin and other characteristics that help in its conservation, such as the anatomical and chemical characteristics of its wood and how they can be used in the development/improvement of methods that allow the species to be identified in the field, including by IBAMA specialists in the processes of inspection and tracking of illegal timber.

Photo by Eduardo P. Fernandez

Recently, the JBRJ's National Centre for the Conservation of Flora (CNCFlora), based on international criteria (IUCN), re-evaluated the conservation status of this symbolic species of the Atlantic Rainforest and the result, which was analysed by the National Biodiversity Commission (CONABIO-MMA), was a recommendation to change the degree of risk of extinction from ‘endangered’ to ‘critically endangered’. Although the pigment brazilin has been replaced by other pigments, such as anilin, brazilwood is still being exploited today, which is why its few remaining individuals continue to be killed and removed from what remains of the Atlantic Rainforest. In the mid-19th century, brazilwood was recommended as the best wood for making violin bows, and it is still used today, even on an international scale. In this sense, in addition to the historical and current loss of habitat throughout its distribution, the greatest current threat is precisely the unsustainable commercial exploitation to obtain this high-value wood (a violin bow can be worth hundreds to thousands of euros on the European market).

So today, on Pau-Brasil Day, the JBRJ, as a scientific research institute of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, reiterates its position on the urgent need to conserve brazilwood, not only in reverence for the symbolism of this species in the history of our country, but also, and especially, on the basis of robust scientific evidence. Science reveals that this species native to Brazil, a Brazilian genetic heritage, is severely threatened with extinction. Unfortunately, at the current rate of exploitation of brazilwood, the question to be asked is not whether it will become extinct in the wild, but when it will become extinct. Are we going to let the tree that baptises this nation become extinct? Contrary to the symbolism with which it was treated years ago, the brazilwood should be treated differently today. And, without losing reverence for this iconic species, the conservation of brazilwood should also be a symbolic act: of conserving nature, biodiversity, the climate and the history of the country that has the greatest biodiversity in the world.