2007-06-07 18:09:53 -

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The tree that gave Brazil its name and the world's violinists their bows got extra protection Thursday to prevent it sliding toward extinction.
But the same endangered species conference that overwhelmingly supported protection of the pau brasil tree also rejected similar action for three other South American tropical trees.
Brazil

welcomed support for its plan to regulate trade in the pau brasil wood by delegates at the triennial meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES.
The plan will protect the tree _ known for its hard, blood-red wood _ while allowing it to «continue to be used to delight us in the hands of inspired musicians and orchestras across the world,» the Brazilian delegation's spokesman said.
A single violin bow carved from about one kilogram (two pounds) of pau brasil wood can sell for up to US$5,000, the World Conservation Union said. In the past, the tree also was logged and used to make dyes.
Centuries of logging and the clearing of forests along Brazil's coast for cropland have wiped out the tree entirely in parts of that country and severely depleted stands elsewhere. Brazil is the only country where it grows in the wild.
The proposal to regulate exports of Brazilwood will be formally adopted before the conference concludes June 15.
But the news was not so good for three other trees _ the Spanish cedar and two species of rosewood.
European Union proposals to regulate exports of the timber were blocked by the countries where they grow. South American delegates harshly criticized the plan to protect the Spanish cedar, whose salmon-colored wood is prized by makers of furniture and cigar boxes.
Inclusion on CITES' list of trade-regulated species «could make people think that cedar is a higher value tree,» the head of the Peruvian delegation, Edgardo Leguia, told The Associated Press outside the conference hall. «It could encourage logging.
The EU reluctantly withdrew the plan rather than have it defeated in a vote. Later it withdrew similar proposals covering Honduras rosewood and Black or Nicaraguan rosewood.
The EU and South American countries will now meet to find a way out of the impasse, but it was unlikely a CITES listing will be finalized at the current meeting.
The rejection was a blow for conservationists who say that the Spanish cedar is threatened by widespread logging, some of it in national parks and protected areas in Peru and other countries.
The EU wanted cedar and the rosewoods listed alongside pau brasil under CITES, a 1975 treaty that regulates exports of plants and animals threatened by over-exploitation. It has more than 7,000 animals and 32,000 plants on its lists.
The protection would not have banned trade but would have allowed exporters to sell only licensed timber that had been logged in a way that did not threaten the species.
«It is a shame how this opportunity was missed,» said Ximena Barrera, from WWF Colombia. «We lost a decade of conservation action for another tropical tree, big-leaf mahogany, because it took 10 years to include it on CITES Appendix II.
That foot dragging left the mahogany on the verge of commercial extinction.
«The same is likely to happen with (Spanish cedar) if the current exploitation levels continue,» Barrera added.
Jochen Flasbarth, the German official who presented the EU proposals, said the European bloc was looking for «a strong signal that the world cares about the world's forests and especially the most endangered timber species.
«I have had some better days in my life,» Flasbarth said earlier. But he added, «we must go on consulting.