MIMF

Up until now Brazilian rosewood already in the U.S. was legal to buy, sell, use, and ship interstate even without documentation (much old lumber and many vintage guitars lack paperwork, since it wasn’t previously required). But as of June 26th, as a CITES Appendix I species (like elephant ivory) and...

Here are new releases from USFWS about the ivory bans. The Feb. 25, 2014, USFWS Director’s Order 2010, showing how agents will enforce the standing 1989 ban and what exceptions are allowed: http://www.fws.gov/policy/do210.html. The above Director’s Order 2010 includes a sub-link to its Appendix 1, “...

Regarding enforcement and impact on instruments and antiques: There's been no enforcement only because these are only proposed regulations, and not yet enacted. At present, African ivory remains legal to buy, sell, use, and transport inside the U.S. But once these laws are approved, the USFWS has vo...

Regarding the allowed import of elephant hunt trophies: We need to be careful about oversimplifying these issues. The allowed import trophies are from elephants that will be taken legally and the considerable money spent on these permits and hunts does 2 things: 1) it provides funding for very real ...

The OLF now has an active thread on the subject. To keep things based in facts, here are links to statements from the White House and the USFWS regarding the ivory situation: The Feb. 11, 2014, White House announcement: http://wh.gov/lQOCs. The above announcement includes a sub-link to the full text...

Many of you may be aware that there are proposed new federal and state bans on buying or selling any African elephant ivory within the U.S., which will impact vintage instrument owners, collectors, dealers, and those who work on them. To keep things based in facts, here are links to statements from ...

Here's the NAMM website page that will post a link to the recorded Webinar as soon as available. It also contains up-to-the-minute news about other Lacey related activities: http://www.namm.org/publicaffairs.

FREE WEBINAR: Endangered Species and the Traveling Musician -- May 14, 2:00 P.M. EDT (Posted by NAMM on May 7, 2013) Special permits are required to travel internationally with certain musical instruments containing protected species, such as ivory, rosewood, tortoise shell, and other material [whi...

Can you give me a pointer to the application process for unpapered woods or, for that matter, shell products? I suppose I should get started on facing up to this stuff. Shell isn't really an issue here, since none of the species used in guitars is listed as controlled and thus require no exemptions...

Here's a good preliminary analysis of this passport decision by Law Professor (and guitar player/author) John Thomas: http://www.fretboardjournal.com/blog/musical-instrument-passports-new-cites-provision. As approved the passport is far from perfect and has several important issues which remain unre...

Hi, Alan! What the regulations are intended to do is expose any items which were made using illegally harvested materials, regardless of how old the item is or whether or not the current owner is actively involved in commercial activity with it. Simply allowing a person to travel back and forth over...

Doug: There's no specific mechanism in the new passport proposal that allows for new instruments containing old pre-ban "legacy" materials. That's another issue entirely, one which is being worked on with the authorities. The good news is that there's already an application process in plac...

This is great news regarding international movement of guitars and other instruments, especially since approval on this proposal wasn't expected to happen at this conference! The passports are only for personal instruments, so buying/selling internationally continues to remain almost impossible. Ti...

Congressman Jim Cooper's office just called George Gruhn to tell him Republican leadership in the House decided that because they can't get enough support to pass the RELIEF Act it's been pulled. So, sincere thanks again to those of you who did make the effort to contact your reps...but to the vast ...

Since it's listed as protected by CITES but not by any U.S. regulation (such as the ESA) African elephant Ivory isn't a problem as long as it remains within the U.S. (Asian elephant ivory is totally illegal to buy or sell, as is all tortoiseshell, since both are listed by CITES and the ESA ), but iv...

Hi, Mario! It will make it possible to get import/export exemption certificates for pre-2008 woods and the instruments made from them which don't meet Lacey's post-2008 paperwork requirements. This only pertains to woods, not shell, although it sets a legal precedent that could be applied to shell.

Instrument makers, dealers, collectors, music store owners, wood and shell vendors, musicians, and anyone else in the music industry, you need to contact your Congressional reps immediately urging them to vote "YES" on HR 3210, which is designed to fix weaknesses in the Lacey Act (without ...

A huge thanks on that!! And to everyone else who's cared enough about U.S. guitar making to do the same.

Yes, they're all subject to Lacey enforcement, as are a myriad of products from many other industries. Be assured that USFWS is well aware of the thousands of daily small import/export transactions involving natural materials, almost all of which they consider to be illegal. The only thing preventin...

Lacey requires enforcement of plant and wildlife law at all levels: tribal, local, state, national, and international. As such, it applies to all domestic and foreign species including those listed by state fish and game agencies, the ESA, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, U.S. Forest Service, Burea...