Brazil’s proposal
The issue is set to come to a head next week, as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) holds its 20th meeting.
Heightened restrictions on brazilwood are scheduled to be raised for a vote at the conference.
Since 1998, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the tree as endangered.
But a proposal authored by the Brazilian government would increase CITES protections for brazilwood, placing it in the highest tier for trade restrictions.
CITES regulates the international trade of endangered species, and it classifies animals and plants in three appendices.
The third is the least restrictive: If a species is endangered in a given country, then export permits are required from that country.
The Appendix II has tighter standards: Export permits are required from wherever the species is extracted. Most endangered species, including brazilwood, fall into this category.
But Brazil hopes to bump brazilwood up to appendix one, a category for species faced with extinction.
Trade of plants and animals in that appendix is largely banned, except for non-commercial use. But even in that case, both import and export licences are