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re: Endangered Tropical Woods



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