“Rosewood is the world’s most illegally trafficked wild product, with huge demand from the Chinese furniture industry and other users driving deforestation in vulnerable countries,” writes Patrick Sullivan in the August issue of Acoustic Guitar. “New rules under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) … aimed at reining in logging’s threats to rosewood … took effect January 2, 2017 [and] have also sparked questions and concerns among many makers and musicians…. The new CITES Appendix II listing … includes … small amounts of wood in features like [guitar] tuning pegs…. Instruments brought across international boundaries for noncommercial purposes [are exempted] as long as they contain less than 10 kilograms … of … rosewood…. According to the League of American Orchestras’ Heather Noonan, who attended last fall’s CITES conference in South Africa … the U.S. has taken a generous interpretation… The 10-kilogram limit applies not to the instrument’s total weight but to the amount of rosewood in it. Musicians should understand, however, that other countries might take different interpretations…. ‘The very safest course of action is to contact the local authority and ask what is required,’ Noonan says.” See the League’s Protected Species Travel Tips here.
Posted June 21, 2017
