• Earlier in 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s office denied to Mongabay that he had had a phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, before a decisive vote at the 2025 meeting of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty to secure the highest trade protections for endangered Brazilwood.
• But after Mongabay’s Freedom of Information Act request, Lula’s office confirmed the two leaders had, in fact, been in direct communication during the CITES summit. The confirmation comes after allegations that last-minute political maneuvers by France diluted Brazil’s proposal and resulted in reduced protections. France has not responded to Mongabay’s similar freedom of information request, and has declined to comment about any communications between Lulu and Macron at the CITES summit.
• Brazilwood is highly sought-after by the music industry to craft violin bows costing up to $8,200 apiece. The species, endemic to Brazil, has declined by 84% over the last three generations and is now critically endangered.

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Early in 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s office denied that he had a phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about easing proposed trade restrictions on Brazil’s endangered national tree.

The denial to Mongabay came during reporting for a story published in February about Brazil’s efforts to seek the highest trade protections for Brazilwood (Paubrasilia echinata) — safeguards that were diluted during a global summit of representatives to CITES, a wildlife trade treaty signed by 184 countries and the European Union.

Now, following a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Mongabay, Lula’s office confirmed that he had, in fact, been in communication with Macron just before a key vote on the proposal at the CITES conference, held five months ago in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

The conversations between Lula and Macron were “regarding the negotiations then underway” as part of CITES deliberations, according to Brazil’s Special Advisory Office of the President of the Republic. The office responded to Mongabay’s FOIA request on April 6. It did not specify what was discussed and did not state if the talks happened over a phone call, text or other means. The FOIA response marks the first official confirmation that the two leaders were in communications at CITES over the issue.

Native to the country’s Atlantic Forest and a national symbol, Brazilwood is coveted in the music industry to make high-quality violin bows, which sell for as high as 7,000 euros ($8,200) apiece.

The demand has led the number of trees to plummet by 84% over the last three generations in the country. Only 10,000 adult trees remain in the wild, according to Brazil’s environmental agency, IBAMA.

Lula Macron next to a Sumaúma, the largest tree in the Amazon, on Combu Island. Image by Ricardo Stuckert / PR via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0).

In 2024, Brazil’s National Center for Flora Conservation heightened the species’ conservation status to critically endangered. Leading up to the CITES summit, held Nov. 24 to Dec. 5, 2025, Brazil proposed to list the species on CITES Appendix I, which would ban all commercial international trade, an attempt to reduce further harm.

The French music industry and the International Pernambuco Conservatory Initiative (IPCI), a global organization of bow makers, lobbied strongly against the strictest trade protections, arguing that plantation-grown trees will ease environmental pressures.

Brazilwood has been listed since 2007 on CITES Appendix II, which allows regulated international commercial trade and requires permits. But that hasn’t prevented illegal or unsustainable trade. Over the last years, investigations from IBAMA and Brazil’s Federal Police revealed that criminal groups were using false timber documents to launder illegal wood taken from protected areas.

The newly disclosed communications between Lula and Macron were on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. Five days later, on Dec. 4, Brazil accepted a watered-down form of its initial proposal.

Mongabay filed a freedom of information request with French authorities. They have not answered, and an appeal is pending. Representatives for Macron have declined to comment. They continued to decline to comment when told about the disclosures in the Brazilian FOIA response.

The two leaders have shared a cordial personal relationship over the years. Mongabay reported in February on allegations that the French president had called Lula to persuade him against the proposal during the CITES summit.

At the time, the French newspaper Le Point stated that Macron had made a phone call on Nov. 29, 2025, to Lula to persuade him against seeking increased trade protections for Brazilwood, citing unnamed sources.

Flowers of a brazilwood tree. Image by henrique_bitencourt via iNaturalist (CC BY-SA 4.0).

According to sources interviewed by Mongabay, the negotiations during the Samarkand conference took an unexpected turn after that conversation.

Brazil’s Appendix I proposal was supported by Argentina, Russia, India and China. But others objected, including Australia, the European Union and Canada, arguing that such a move could inconvenience musicians traveling abroad with Brazilwood bows who would need permits each time they traveled. The countries insisted on creating a working group to iron out differences.

Instead of pressing for a vote on Appendix I restrictions on Nov. 26, Brazil agreed to a working group, which ended up keeping the species in Appendix II, with stricter rules.

The French music industry had been lobbying Macron about Brazilwood since 2022, when Brazil first requested the Appendix I listing.

IPCI, the bow makers association, lauded Macron’s “unwavering support and decisive involvement” in the case. It did not provide any details about the nature of that involvement.

But Charlotte Nithart, president of the French environmental NGO Robin des Bois said, “To my mind, it was … a scandal.”

“From a political and scientific point of view, when a country would like to protect its endemic species, the rest of the world has to follow and to support this effort,” Nithart said.

After diplomatic maneuvering, Brazil agreed to keeping the species on Appendix II, but with an important modification: Since March 5, none of CITES signatories can export Brazilwood products or wild-harvested specimens for commercial purposes. Musicians, however, will be permitted to cross borders carrying bows made from the wood.

A 2018 operation carried out by IBAMA and the Federal Police uncovered groups illegally cutting Brazilwood trees in Bahia state and selling the wood to bow makers in neighboring Espírito Santo. Image courtesy of Felipe Bernardino Guimarães/IBAMA.

While the French administration termed the compromise “balanced,” Felipe Bernardino Guimarães, an environmental analyst with IBAMA, told Mongabay in a previous interview that it would open loopholes for possible illegal trade.

It will be a major challenge to implement the new rules, he said, “because it is at customs that there will be interpretation as to whether it is a musician traveling with the bow to play or the musician taking the bow to sell it.”

Only 5% of the wood from cut trees is used to make bows, and the rest ends up as waste, according to Guimarães.

Banner image: Lula and Macron during a bilateral meeting at Guajará Bay. Image by Ricardo Stuckert / PR via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0).

Brazil wanted more protections for its endangered national tree. Then France called