The wood behind the music: why CITES PC28 matters to instrument makers

What happened in Geneva

The twenty-eighth meeting of the CITES Plants Committee—PC28—met in Geneva from 17 to 23 July 2026. Among a much wider programme, participants examined tree species used in musical-instrument making and work that will continue through intersessional groups and later CITES committees before matters reach the Conference of the Parties.

European Soundmakers participated for the first time, represented by Michael Jousserand, alongside Jacques Carbonneaux of the French instrument-makers’ association CSFI. Other music-sector participants included Pernambuco conservation initiatives, orchestral and bow-making representatives, and Taylor Guitars.

Two woods, two different dependencies

African blackwood—Dalbergia melanoxylon—is central to high-quality clarinets and oboes. Pernambuco—Paubrasilia echinata—is uniquely important to the established craft of making bows for stringed instruments. The species create different compliance questions, but both expose the same reality: for some instruments, material provenance is inseparable from performance, heritage and repairability.

European Soundmakers called for stronger forest inventories, traceability and voluntary partnerships for African blackwood. On Pernambuco, it supported Brazil’s conservation proposal and highlighted more than 25 years of work by the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative.

Part of a process—not the final rule

Plants Committee meetings provide scientific and technical advice, review implementation and develop recommendations. PC28’s work feeds subsequent committees and CoP21 in Panama. Businesses should follow the direction of travel, but should not tell customers that attendance in Geneva itself created a new prohibition.

The appropriate response is preparation: understand materials held, strengthen provenance evidence, follow the relevant species discussions and contribute operational information through representative bodies. Waiting for a final rule before cleaning records can leave too little time to resolve gaps.

Why customs data cannot answer this alone

Chapter 92 records finished musical instruments and parts. It does not reliably tell us which wood species an instrument contains, whether material was wild-sourced or artificially propagated, when it was acquired, or which documentary exemption may apply.

A guitar, clarinet, bow blank and finished bow can sit in different tariff classifications and encounter different CITES treatment. The same object may face different questions when first exported, re-exported, carried by a touring musician, returned for repair or sold as a vintage instrument.

Commercial effects can precede legal change

When future availability becomes uncertain, manufacturers may increase inventories, lengthen purchasing commitments, invest in alternatives or redesign product ranges. Prices and lead times can move before a legal listing or annotation changes.

Compliance costs are uneven. A large manufacturer can build systems for supplier declarations, permits and serial-level provenance. An independent maker, repairer or travelling musician may face a similar evidential burden with far fewer resources. Poorly designed rules can therefore change market structure as well as conservation outcomes.

Our reading

European Soundmakers’ presence matters because the industry can better explain where conservation and lawful use reinforce one another. Instrument makers have a multi-decade interest in healthy forests; conservation bodies need credible traceability and evidence that permitted trade does not harm wild populations.

Representation must now be matched by data. The industry’s most useful contribution is not a general claim that its volumes are small. It is species-specific evidence on sourcing, yields, waste, inventories, finished-product movements, repairs, vintage stock and conservation investment. That evidence can support rules targeting genuine risk without making legitimate musical use unnecessarily difficult.

Questions for businesses

• Which products and repair components contain CITES-listed species?
• Can relevant material be traced to supplier, source and acquisition date?
• Do records survive when an instrument is resold, repaired or re-exported?
• Where might a permit change affect stock, lead time or customer service?
• What evidence should be shared through European Soundmakers or a national association?
• Are alternatives being assessed for sound, durability, repair and acceptance—not just availability?