New restrictions on cocobolo?

[Gerry Gruber]

I'm just about to begin a cocobolo guitar for export to the US (I live in Canada), and was doing some research on cocobolo. Until recently, cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa) has been listed in CITES Appendix III (for Panama and Guatamala populations only). However, I just read the following, which comes from the Bankok, March, 2013 CITES meeting. Cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa) is referenced in the last line. Does anyone know what the "recommendation" was that was adopted, that pertains to cocobolo, and how this will play out? Much appreciated. The link from which this quote was taken is: http://www.iisd.ca/vol21/enb2182e.html

SPECIES TRADE AND CONSERVATION: The CoP adopted the recommendations of the Committees on: great apes; Asian big cats; illegal trade in cheetahs; leopard quotas; elephants (including monitoring the illegal killing of elephants; monitoring of illegal trade in ivory and other elephant specimens; recommendations on the draft revision of Resolution Conf.10.10 (Rev.CoP15) on trade in elephant specimens; and a resolution on the African Elephant Action Plan and African Elephant Fund); rhinoceroses; Tibetan antelope; Saiga antelope; snake trade and conservation management; hawksbill turtle; sturgeons and paddlefish (including reports of the AC and the Secretariat); sharks and stingrays; humphead wrasse; sea cucumbers; regional cooperation on the management of and trade in the queen conch (Strombus gigas); Madagascar; agarwood-producing taxa (including the report of the PC and draft resolution on implementation of the Convention for agarwood-producing taxa); bigleaf mahogany; Cedrela odorata, Dalbergia retusa, D. granadillo and D. stevensonii; and the report of the Central Africa Bushmeat Working Group.

[Beate Ritzert]

It is not just Cocobolo but in fact many of the most significant woods used in instrument making: more or less all significant dalbergia woods are on that list and also several types of mahogany.

[Gerry Gruber]

Ok. It looks lke cocobolo (along with various other woods, as Beate has mentioned) will be moved from Appendix III to Appendix II effective June 12th, and if my German is up to snuff, this website indicates that it is for raw wood only (footnote 6), not finished instruments. http://www.bfn.de/0305_cites_holz_cop16.html

[David King]

So presumably wood we don't process into something other than raw lumber before June 12th will need to be registered?
I have a bunch of Madagascar ebony that's roughly cut to the dimensions of upright bass fingerboards. I wonder if they will pass muster or if I should start cleaning them up.

[Gerry Gruber]

Hi David. To my knowledge, you only need be concerned if you plan to sell the raw Madagascar ebony (to someone outside of the USA ). If you build a guitar with it, and export the guitar, it isn't covered, and you don't need a permit.