re: Endangered Tropical Woods
craig.harris@ssc.msu.edu
Fri, 13 Sep 96 5:47:25 EDT
john,
i can't give an authoritative comment on whether bubinga is on an official
list of endangered species, but i'm going to take a stab at the question which
i think underlies your post, which i think is: from the perspective of
ecological ethics, what woods should we be concerned about using in harps? . .
. i think the answer to that question is different from the endangered species
question . . . for example, if someone were operating a forest plantation to
produce an endangered species and were operating the plantation in a
sustainable way, i don't think there would be any ethical reason not to use
the wood in musical instruments . . . on the other hand, even if a particular
wood is not at the moment officially considered to be an endangered species,
but it is produced using methods that are not sustainable (e.g., rape and
run), then i would say there are ethical concerns in using the wood in
instruments . . . i realize that this perspective puts instrument buyers in
the position of trusting the person who made the instrument (i think most harp
players know the harp makers fairly well), and it puts a burden on the harp
makers of knowing something about how the wood they use was produced . . . in
the case of tropical hardwoods (such as padauk), rainforest action and other
organizations can help with certification of production methods
cheers,
craig
"John Lozier" <JLOZIER@wvnvm.wvnet.edu> Wrote:
| Can someone answer a question that came up on a musical instrument list
(Harp@mit.edu):
| Is BUBINGA an endangered species/
| Other specialty woods mentioned have been PURPLEHEART, KOA, and PADAUK.
| What I'd really like to do is post a more or less comprehensive reply to
the whole musical and instrument-building community.
| Thanks.
| John Lozier
| College of Agriculture
| West Virginia University
craig k harris
dept of sociology michigan state university east lansing michigan
48824-1111
tel: 517-355-5048 fax: 517-432-2856