News & Blogs

Each fine guitar requires several rare tonewoods from around the world, representing the highest grade of the top 1 percent of all commercially available wood, a niche product with a small supply, large demand and high sales: $1.2 billion in U.S. domestic retail sales in 2014 alone.

The wood underneath a guitar’s strings is called the fretboard. To function properly, it has to be perfectly constructed from wood that is hard, dense and warp-resistant. It must hold metal frets for years without any movement, since even a microscopic amount of fret movement can throw a guitar out of tune. One material is synonymous with fine fretboards: ebony.

Guitars appeal to our eyes as much as our ears. The most highly desired tonewoods are not only resonant and produce a good sound, but are also visually beautiful.

Building an acoustic guitar means considering the tonal balance of the wood as much as any structural properties. Guitars are traditionally made from several different tonewoods. In select cases, however, the guitar body can be made from just one wood.

Stringed instruments have existed for thousands of years, but what we think of as a modern guitar was only born in the mid-19th century. The guitar continues to develop as an instrument today along with advancements in new technologies and production techniques.

In May 2016, Japan adopted a new piece of legislation, called the “Law Concerning the Promotion of Distribution and Use of Legally-Harvested Timber, etc.” This law takes a different approach from other demand-side regulations for illegal timber imports, such as the U.S. Lacey Act, the EU Timber Regulation and Australian Illegal Logging Prohibition Act, in the sense that it is designed to promote the trade of legal timber, rather than attempting to eliminate illegal timber on the market.

Since 2010, WRI’s Forest Legality Alliance (FLA) has been at the forefront of efforts to combat illegal logging and associated trade. Together with co-founders the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), as well as over 100 partner organizations from governments, civil society, and the private sector, FLA has been a prime convener and technical resource on this crucial issue.

The illegal timber trade creates problems for everyone. Governments lose valuable revenue and natural resources. So governments and businesses are starting to do more to improve timber traceability, including adopting new and existing technologies that can help track timber, manage information, and eventually, help combat illegal logging.

Illegal logging is an enormous problem in Peru, as shown in recent studies and reports highlighting the phenomenon’s impact on the country’s forests, including an Al Jazeera documentary exploring the links between illegal logging and corruption. A recent government audit found evidence of timber laundering, where exporters make illegally logged wood appear to be legitimately harvested.

Forest defenders—from indigenous groups to government authorities—continue to struggle in stopping illegal logging. Faced with scant resources, rampant corruption and vast tracts of difficult terrain to monitor, being an effective forest manager is often an impossible task.