Shawn@PRS
yogi
At the October CITES Conference, which regulates the use and trade of various wildlife, it was ruled that all Dalbergia (rosewoods) and certain other wood species will become protected under CITES Appendix II. A webinar was recently held, on December 7, about NEW Rules for Protected Species and Musical Instruments. Please find a PDF copy of the slides from that webinar uploaded here. There was also a December 6th webinar on commercial imports and exports of timber and timber products. We will update this thread when an archived copy of that webinar is made available.
As you can imagine, this has precipitated an enormous amount of activity. PRS is working diligently to do everything we can to not disrupt the flow of product while fully complying with these regulation. We will share any information we can as more details becomes available from authorities.
Please also feel welcome to be in touch with the representatives from your national organization below for ongoing information about protected species policy and its implications for travel and commerce with musical instruments. The organizations that co-hosted the December 7th webinar are:
· American Federation of Musicians
· American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers
· Carnegie Hall
· Chamber Music America
· League of American Orchestras
· NAMM: the National Association of Music Merchants
· The Recording Academy
For more information from U.S. Fish & Wildlife:
· www.fws.gov/international
· www.CITES.org
· Email: [email protected]
For more information specific to travel with musical instruments:
· League of American Orchestras: CITES Protected Species Travel Tips
We will do our best to update these resources as regulations, processes, and procedures are developed.
As always, we appreciate your support of PRS Guitars.
Update 6/7/17
We mentioned in our original post on this thread that we would update here as new information became available. In light of some recent industry news, now felt like a good time to share how PRS has handled the transition of working with these new regulations.
When PRS first heard that Dalbergia (rosewood) was going to become protected under CITES Appendix II, we immediately contacted the appropriate governing bodies so we could fully understand the situation. PRS is not new to dealing with CITES and other trade regulations, so we already had a great working relationship with those agencies, including US Fish and Wildlife and the USDA/APHIS. We invited these agencies, who were also at that time trying to figure out how to enforce the CITES ruling, to PRS and had an open and fruitful chat with them. A worthwhile note here: these agencies did not create this regulation, but they are in charge of enacting and enforcing it just as we are responsible for fully complying with it. Because we acted and communicated with these agencies promptly, we were actually able to help them better understand how these woods are used in musical instrument manufacturing and to help define how this new program could work. The agencies also visited at least one other manufacturer on this trip. Long story short, we were able to have very open communication that helped PRS to grow its already robust compliance program to include these new species classifications. It also put us “first in line” for the necessary permits and procedures, so there was very little disruption to our manufacturing line and delivery times. Our partnership with FWS and USDA/APHIS continues to be strong and very cooperative.
That said and in light of some recent industry news, we would like to let everyone here know that we continue to design and build PRS instruments with dalbergia/rosewood. Rosewood, especially East Indian rosewood, has long been considered an industry standard in the recipe of building great guitars. We have had great success with this material and continue to do so. Yes, we know of other materials that could be used in its place, such as Pau Ferro, Katalox, maple, ebony, and others, and we use these already from time to time on special runs, in Artist Package, Wood Library and Private Stock. Yes, this regulation has added some additional internal procedures for PRS. But in the end, the species is protected and the instruments we make are exactly what we want to make – because we believe in the recipe. Should we change materials in the future, it will be because we feel the instruments (and/or the resources) are best served by making a change.
Lastly, we said we would share the link to additional resources when they were made available. Here is the link to for more information https://www.fws.gov/international/pdf/questions-and-answers-appendix-II-timber-listings-December-2016.pdf and a reminder of where you all can email to ask any specific questions you may have: [email protected]
Thank you, as always, for your support of PRS Guitars.
As you can imagine, this has precipitated an enormous amount of activity. PRS is working diligently to do everything we can to not disrupt the flow of product while fully complying with these regulation. We will share any information we can as more details becomes available from authorities.
Please also feel welcome to be in touch with the representatives from your national organization below for ongoing information about protected species policy and its implications for travel and commerce with musical instruments. The organizations that co-hosted the December 7th webinar are:
· American Federation of Musicians
· American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers
· Carnegie Hall
· Chamber Music America
· League of American Orchestras
· NAMM: the National Association of Music Merchants
· The Recording Academy
For more information from U.S. Fish & Wildlife:
· www.fws.gov/international
· www.CITES.org
· Email: [email protected]
For more information specific to travel with musical instruments:
· League of American Orchestras: CITES Protected Species Travel Tips
We will do our best to update these resources as regulations, processes, and procedures are developed.
As always, we appreciate your support of PRS Guitars.
Update 6/7/17
We mentioned in our original post on this thread that we would update here as new information became available. In light of some recent industry news, now felt like a good time to share how PRS has handled the transition of working with these new regulations.
When PRS first heard that Dalbergia (rosewood) was going to become protected under CITES Appendix II, we immediately contacted the appropriate governing bodies so we could fully understand the situation. PRS is not new to dealing with CITES and other trade regulations, so we already had a great working relationship with those agencies, including US Fish and Wildlife and the USDA/APHIS. We invited these agencies, who were also at that time trying to figure out how to enforce the CITES ruling, to PRS and had an open and fruitful chat with them. A worthwhile note here: these agencies did not create this regulation, but they are in charge of enacting and enforcing it just as we are responsible for fully complying with it. Because we acted and communicated with these agencies promptly, we were actually able to help them better understand how these woods are used in musical instrument manufacturing and to help define how this new program could work. The agencies also visited at least one other manufacturer on this trip. Long story short, we were able to have very open communication that helped PRS to grow its already robust compliance program to include these new species classifications. It also put us “first in line” for the necessary permits and procedures, so there was very little disruption to our manufacturing line and delivery times. Our partnership with FWS and USDA/APHIS continues to be strong and very cooperative.
That said and in light of some recent industry news, we would like to let everyone here know that we continue to design and build PRS instruments with dalbergia/rosewood. Rosewood, especially East Indian rosewood, has long been considered an industry standard in the recipe of building great guitars. We have had great success with this material and continue to do so. Yes, we know of other materials that could be used in its place, such as Pau Ferro, Katalox, maple, ebony, and others, and we use these already from time to time on special runs, in Artist Package, Wood Library and Private Stock. Yes, this regulation has added some additional internal procedures for PRS. But in the end, the species is protected and the instruments we make are exactly what we want to make – because we believe in the recipe. Should we change materials in the future, it will be because we feel the instruments (and/or the resources) are best served by making a change.
Lastly, we said we would share the link to additional resources when they were made available. Here is the link to for more information https://www.fws.gov/international/pdf/questions-and-answers-appendix-II-timber-listings-December-2016.pdf and a reminder of where you all can email to ask any specific questions you may have: [email protected]
Thank you, as always, for your support of PRS Guitars.
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