Forest Conservation Initiative to Protect Musical Instrument Wood
8/27/97
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Headline: Forest Conservation Initiative to Protect Musical Instrument Wood
Source: Pamela Wellner, Tel. (415) 695-1956
Date: 8/27/97
For Immediate Release August 27, 1997 Media Contact:
Pamela Wellner, Tel. (415) 695-1956
Forest Conservation Initiative To Protect Musical Instrument Wood
Opens San Francisco Office
SAN FRANCISCO, August 27 -- SoundWood, a four year program of UK
based Fauna & Flora International, now has a US office in San
Francisco, CA. SoundWood works to protect forests containing
timber species used in the manufacture of musical instruments.
Trees like rosewood, mahogany and ebony have all been used for
centuries to make quality instruments but they are becoming scarce
as deforestation rapidly increases. Some trees have been so
over-exploited that they are commercially extinct such as
Brazilian rosewood which is banned from international trade. Other
species like pernambuco used for violin bows and African blackwood
used for clarinets are increasingly threatened.
SoundWood was started to develop forest conservation strategies
that focus on the special trees used to make musical instruments.
SoundWood promotes the environmentally sustainable management of
forests, and helps local people who depend on these forests
benefit from the valuable timber they contain.
Many well known musicians endorse SoundWood's objectives,
including program patron Yehudi Menuhin. Bob Weir, the guitarist
formerly with the Grateful Dead, also supports the program, "I
like SoundWood because its sets up a model for forest conservation
that can be applied to all wood uses and because it reaches out to
musicians, who are more inclined to be sensitive to issues of
natural resource depletion."
SoundWood assesses the conservation status of tree species used
for musical instruments and provides information on the threats to
these species. To help conserve the trees and forest, SoundWood
helps instrument manufacturers to use wood that is independently
certified from well managed sources and encourages the use of less
threatened species. The program also develops forest conservation
strategies in partnership with local communities.
SoundWood works in collaboration with the music industry and has
expanded its work in the US due to the high number of influential
musical instrument manufacturers and the large market for musical
instruments. SoundWood US is working with Martin, Modulus, Fender,
Washburn, Taylor, Paul Reed Smith, and Parker guitar manufacturers
and St. Louis Music Inc.
The SoundWood Guitar Guide detailing the efforts made by various
guitar manufacturers to improve the ecological sources of their
wood will be available in January 1998.