Musicians Face the Music: Managing Sourcing Risks from Rare Woods

When you see a musician with their wooden instrument, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not international treaties or travel restrictions.

So, how did we get here?

Why This Matters

• The Sound: Behind the beautiful sounds a guitar, violin, cello, bass, oboe, drum, and piano make, there are unheard of negative global environmental externalities. Many instruments are rafted from rare wood such as ebony, rosewood, and mahogany.

• The Instrument: These endangered species often targeted by illegal logging and smuggling organizations.

• The Musicians: Because of this, many musicians who travel with their instruments may face risks if they are unable to demonstrate that their instrument complies with international conservation laws.

• The Solution: The UK’s Musicians’ Union provides guidance for musicians traveling globally focusing on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which provides protection to more than 35,000 species of animals and plants internationally, whether they are traded or moved as live specimens or their parts. Their guidance advises musicians so that they may pass borders without scrutiny. 

The Deforestation Crisis and New Policies

According to Interpol, environmental crime is the fourth-largest criminal enterprise in the world, after drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and human trafficking. Illegal logging is a major component of environmental crimes. The demand for rare tropical hardwoods with tonal quality is high.

These trees grow naturally in forests that are already threated by industrial agriculture conversion, mining, and oil and gas exploration. Combined with illegal logging, these factors are causing our forests to vanish and our species to go extinct.

Cutting down these trees also hurts the ecosystem and our planet as a whole. Illegal deforestation accelerates climate change and contributes to biodiversity collapse through the destruction of habitat for flora and fauna, creating a negative feedback loop.

The cutting down of trees releases stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, reducing Earth’s ability to absorb greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane. Greenhouse gases then trap excess heat in the atmosphere by decreasing reflection of the sun’s energy off the Earth’s surface, which increases temperatures globally.

Increased temperatures caused by these greenhouse gases dry out vegetation and create an environment for extreme weather to increase such as catastrophic droughts, wildfires, and precipitation events.

Wildfires destroy more vegetation, restarting and accelerating the cycle again.

With these setbacks, there are some policy changes that will hopefully turn the tide against deforestation.

Recently on April 16, 2025, the European Commission announced measures to simplify the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Responsible Alpha recently covered some of these policy shifts in the European Union (EU) in our blog “The Omnibus Rollback: A Wake-Up Call for Businesses and Investors”. The EUDR fosters a vision that aims to make sure that goods sold by the EU do not contribute to deforestation, requiring the operators and traders of the product to confirm.

The recent changes make it easier for companies to submit their Due Diligence Statements (DDSs), which can increase compliance because it’s easier to comply with the regulations than find ways to avoid them. However, corporations can reuse DDSs, and only annual submissions are required, which reduces transparency for these firms and makes it take longer for bad actors to be held responsible. Hopefully, these changes will increase compliance.

Coming full circle, this means that as EUDR comes into force, it will be easier for musicians to travel globally with ease, bringing music to our ears.

Action Items: Corporations

• Inspect Your Supply Chain: Corporations should inspect their supply chain to see if their products use wood or packaging that could be linked to deforestation. If your firm does use material linked with deforestation, Responsible Alpha can help.

• Engage in Forest Restoration: If your corporation must use wood, you can offset this wood by partnering with restoration projects or planting trees. Firms can go beyond net-zero and be nature-positive.

Action Items: Musicians

• Know Your Instrument: If you travel with your instrument, please ensure you have correct documentation if necessary to avoid confiscation. Also, if you are buying an instrument, please ensure that you are buying from a source that did not acquire their wood from illegal logging. You can use this online questionnaire to work out if you need a CITES certificate to travel with your musical instrument, and what next steps to take.

• Reduce Rare Wood Usage: Instead of using rare woods, consider alternatives that do not contribute to deforestation, like recycled wood or bamboo. Instruments can be made with carbon fiber, and furniture can be made with bamboo and recycled wood.