CITES Appendix II

Shawn@PRS

yogi
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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.
 
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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.

Thanks for the info Shawn, The powerpoint provides a lot of clarification.
 
As far as I know, it is not against the law to buy one of these guitars with rosewood as long as it meets the standard of the CITES treaty.

You can even still to this day, buy brazillian rosewood guitars from what I understand, but you are going to pay more for them.

If it was up to the stupid envirmentalists though, we would all be playing plastic guitars!
 
If it was up to the stupid envirmentalists though, we would all be playing plastic guitars!

Be careful with those words and please spell correctly if you are going to insult people.. Musicians do actually tend to be very pro-environment, me included. I have no issue with woods being used for guitars. But, it needs to be done in a sustainable way that doesn't lead to wiping out of entire forests and extinction of entire tree species. There won't be wood left or even a planet if we don't smarten up as humans.
 
Be careful with those words and please spell correctly if you are going to insult people.. Musicians do actually tend to be very pro-environment, me included. I have no issue with woods being used for guitars. But, it needs to be done in a sustainable way that doesn't lead to wiping out of entire forests and extinction of entire tree species. There won't be wood left or even a planet if we don't smarten up as humans.
I am sure Mcarty1 meant nothing by it other than as a joke. But I agree with the rest of what you write :)
 
Unfortunately for us musicians, the abuse of exotic woods and endangering certain species is primarily caused by the furniture industry, which is now being fueled by the Chinese middle- and upper-class who now have more wealth and access to imported goods than ever before. So rosewood coffee tables etc are being cranked out at an enormous rate, while rosewood for guitars etc is probably less than 1% of the timber use.

Hopefully other tonewoods will be sourced by PRS that can replace some of our traditional choices.

Sigh, sometimes I'm really proud to be a human, sometimes not so much.
 
This may be an ignorant question... but how does the classification of rosewood species as Appendix II impact the import of rosewood for manufacturing? In other words, will PRS still be able to get rosewood? The webinar slides only covers personal instrument use.
 
It´s all about usage of sustainability of resources. PRS had some severe impact on reputation due to purchase big leaf maple wood harvested illegally in Washington state in past. Which - from my perspective - lead to strict limitation of quilted maple to PS. I highly appreciate that PRS - personnally by @Shawn@PRS - keeps us in the loop about CITES.
In fact all non-US-residents are aware of problems in case of acquisition of instruments with exotic or seldem woods. Without CITES documents we weren´t allowed to buy PRS with BRW parts.
 
This may be an ignorant question... but how does the classification of rosewood species as Appendix II impact the import of rosewood for manufacturing? In other words, will PRS still be able to get rosewood? The webinar slides only covers personal instrument use.
AFAIK (which is very little, I suppose), listing on Appendix II will not prevent the use of the wood in finished products, it just makes the paperwork more annoying, and controls the export of the material. From the CITES website:

Appendix II lists species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled. It also includes so-called "look-alike species", i.e. species whose specimens in trade look like those of species listed for conservation reasons (see Article II, paragraph 2 of the Convention). International trade in specimens of Appendix-II species may be authorized by the granting of an export permit or re-export certificate. No import permit is necessary for these species under CITES (although a permit is needed in some countries that have taken stricter measures than CITES requires). Permits or certificates should only be granted if the relevant authorities are satisfied that certain conditions are met, above all that trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild. (See Article IV of the Convention)

So whoever harvests and wants to export Rosewood now needs to have a good papertrail. PRS should not have any real issue obtaining Rosewood for the immediate future, IMHO, but eventually the listing in the appendix II allows the "authorities" [not sure which authorities have authority...] to clamp down more and more on allowing exports if the wood is getting more endangered.

I can't find the specific wording, but I believe, but I also may be wrong, that once the rosewood is on a guitar or even in the shape of a neck blank there should be no issues - it is the raw material that is a concern to CITES.
 
Thanks for clarifying! It sounds like once the wood is in a guitar, and that guitar is purchased and being used for personal purposes, it's good to go across borders.

Hopefully it won't slow down international export of PRS guitars too much, from what I read it sounds like that could be where it gets sticky.
 
Necessity is the mother of invention. Some experiments and there will be options. E.g. Ruokangas is using arctic birch: http://www.ruokangas.com/?p=1903

Whoa, I was not hip to that builder but that is one cool species of wood and a whole lot of cool guitars.

Unfortunately for us musicians, the abuse of exotic woods and endangering certain species is primarily caused by the furniture industry, which is now being fueled by the Chinese middle- and upper-class who now have more wealth and access to imported goods than ever before. So rosewood coffee tables etc are being cranked out at an enormous rate, while rosewood for guitars etc is probably less than 1% of the timber use.

Hopefully other tonewoods will be sourced by PRS that can replace some of our traditional choices.

Sigh, sometimes I'm really proud to be a human, sometimes not so much.

The thought of these tone woods being used for furniture and flooring makes me sick to my stomach. What a shame..
 
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