Would we have restrictions on import? What should we know/have as far as documentation goes?

same as with elephant ivory, it dwindles supply and drives up prices :(

and if you do, get it in OFFICIAL WRITING.

With respect Bob, getting any kind of useful answer out of any department of the government of Canada is a serious challenge

Fascinating chart, thank you for posting and the work involved. It does put paid to much of the musical instrument industry marketing BS in many areas, but as you have already noted, there are many different measurement types. Cheers!

How far south? I am between 27 and 28 Lat

As far as CITES is concerned, you should be fine to own or use it. The only issue would come if you ever tried to export it to another country.

The cross border shipping paperwork issue makes no sense to me. Rosewood does not grow in the U.S. so it needs paperwork to satisfy cites to come into the U.S. Why wouldn’t the same paperwork be good enough to go with the wood if sent on to another country out of the U.S.
Part of the problem with Cites is that every country decides how it will be applied and enforced in that country. In Canada for instance it is Environment Canada. I have contacted them several times with cites questions and they never reply. I am a “hobby” guitar builder – I say hobby, I’ve been building guitars since 1972 and now that I’m retired I make several a year but it is not my income source – I only sell instruments because otherwise I would have to give up my hobby. Anyway I have Brazilian Rosewood that I purchased back in the 70’s and wonder – what happens if I build a guitar with it? I also have east indian rosewood, and some others that are questionable.

It’s called circumvention. It’s not legal and you will 1) pay a fine, 2) get your stuff detained by customs officials, and 3) be liable for a comfy stay a federal facility.

Ah, yes, the language in the 2016 Fish and Wildlife Service letter was sloppy (it can be found at https://web.archive.org/web/20220120180640/https://www.fws.gov/international/pdf/letter-appendix-III-timber-listings-november-2016.pdf). The current USDA Timber Manual also specifies finished products. So if someone in Canada pops across the border and buys a pen turning blank at a woodworking store, they couldn’t bring it home with them. :(

I’m not sure all the exact criteria that’s used to determine eligibility, but the CITES appendices explicitly state the exemption applies only to “finished products.” (See attachment taken from current appendices.)

Some inaccurate information here, as compared to what I gather from the documents I’ve read:

— CITES is not voluntary, at least not as far as its effect on individuals. It is an international treaty ratified by 182 countries, who have all agreed to implement laws and regulations in their countries to support CITES agreements. In contrast, FSC is an advocacy / marketing group.

— Appendix II listing is *not* a ban. As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a 2016 letter published when the listings for these species were about to go into effect, “The Appendix-II listings are not bans or boycotts and should not be misinterpreted as such. On the contrary, Appendix-II documentation demonstrated that specimens were legally acquired and produced sustainably”. What the listing does mean is that importers must jump through hoops and provide documentation to USDA that the country of origin certified that the material was legally harvested as was approved for export. This is all documented in the USDA manual at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/manuals/ports/downloads/cites.pdf. That’s why Appendix-II woods are still available.

— The reason wood sellers in the U.S. won’t ship outside the U.S. is because it’s too much of a hassle to come up with the paperwork and comply with the required procedures; that’s the purview of import/export specialists. In many cases, the typical wood seller would have difficulty coming up with the proper documentation for the wood they have in stock.

— The 10 kg exemption makes no mention of whether or not the shipment consists of finished pieces. However, the noncommercial proviso is key. Again, the USFWS says, “Under U.S. regulations (50 C.F.R. 23.5), ‘non-commercial’ means related to an activity that is not commercial, and includes but is not limited to personal use. ‘Commercial’ means related to an activity that is reasonably likely to result in economic use, gain, or benefit, including but not limited to, profit (whether in cash or in kind). Examples of non-commercial items include gifts, items not intended for sale that are carried in personal baggage or as part of a household move, and items that are personally owned and shipped to oneself”. So no, this exemption could not be used to supply luthier shops.

If you want a substitute for ebony, there are a few options, depending on whether you use the ebony for sonic/structural purposes or decorative purposes. I have seen, used, owned, or heard of substitute uses of Sonowood, Blackwood Tek, Boxwood, and Massaranduba for sonic purposes, and you might consider dark Bog Oak if it’s color you’re after. European luthiers famously made the black parts of their purfling by staining pear wood black with the iron from nails.

Chain of custody is notoriously difficult to trace accurately in lumber supply chains, and is notoriously vulnerable to corruption and falsification. Caches of pre-existing material are likely to exist only under certain circumstances. As a case study, take a professional violin bow maker’s stash of pernambuco cut in the 80s–a violin bow may take a week to fully finish but uses about 1/10 of a board foot of pernambuco. But this is a highly idiosyncratic pattern of use.

CITES non-compliance is something of an open secret in the classical luthierie world, in fact. The volume of cheap, new pernambuco bows coming out of China and Brazil is a mathematical impossibility given the costs associated with fully compliant source material. The 50-year-old stocks from European makers either stayed in Europe with their students or were sold at high prices to Americans–they certainly didn’t go to Chinese sweat shops churning out bows for $100 apiece. Nevertheless, consumers are fed the myth that it’s all from pre-convention stocks. Perhaps less scrupulous dealers excuse themselves because the music world is poor, and margins are tight (I worked first as a musician, then in a violin shop, so I should know).

It is highly likely that any CITES-listed wood that is commercially available has gone through some sort of laundering process but was sourced illegally. The Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. § 3373(a)(1), makes it a crime to purchase wood that is openly known to be illegal, but it is still a misdemeanor when the purchaser only *should know,* the wood is illegal. Fish and Wildlife has not been very eager to repeat the PR disaster of the ca. 2010 Gibson raids, however.

The most responsible thing to do is to find alternatives or, if you feel you must, to buy CITES-listed wood from individuals, not corporations, residing in your same country. If you think your specialist woodworking store or tonewood supplier has entirely clean hands, read between the lines of their website, then ask them probing questions. I’ve gotten some suspicious, resentful looks and terse responses–and that’s how you know something’s up. On the other hand, retiring fine woodworkers, who you can have an honest conversation with, are unlikely under the circumstances to be doing any smuggling, and often built up extensive stocks over the course of a pre-convention career.

If you are making furniture, cutting boards, knife handles, or decorative objects…. c’mon, find a pretty domestic burl or something. If you are making a musical instrument (I make bows), consider the numerous very fine-sounding ones in non-threatened material. There are some great Claro Walnut guitars and basses out there, and Dominique Peccatte made plenty of snakewood, ironwood, and massaranduba bows.

I wonder what would be the legality of selling finished serving trays that happen to be about the size of acoustic guitar back and sides and then repurposing them once imported.