Why Gibson guitars ran afoul of logging rules, and why activists are in Anaheim for NAMM

Southern California Public Radio ^ | Jan. 19, 2012 | Molly Peterson

[Son House]

Over the last few years, guitars and a sort of obscure law against illegal logging have come into conflict. Environmental activists are in Anaheim today, at the National Association of Music Merchants trade show, to do a raising awareness song-and-dance about this. Literally: they've got a musician with them.

The guitars are Gibsons, and the law is the Lacey Act. An NPR colleague reported on this issue from Tennessee last year. Gibson is just a flash point: federal law enforcement officials have investigated the company on the suspicion that it broke laws in India and Madagascar. The Lacey Act makes it illegal to import and trade in illegal timber. (For more about how that's determined, check out the resources from NGO Environmental Investigation Agency.) The idea's to make the supply chain more transparent; U.S. importers of wood products must file a declaration identifying the species name and country of harvest.

Gibson's CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, has been talking since it's been raided to all and sundry about his frustration at the loss of millions of dollars from the raids, and the (to date) lack of charges filed. "The government has chosen to persecute us," Henry Juszkiewicz, the CEO of Gibson told the Heritage Institute. "We actually have done nothing wrong. No charges have been filed at this point." Juszkiewicz cuts a fascinating figure because he has worked closely with the Rainforest Alliance in the past. In the Huffington Post, he actually has advocated for tougher logging rules.

Remember, conservation laws try to combat illegal logging to protect ecosystems, to protect biological diversity, and to minimize climate impact. In places like Madagascar, there's controversy about corrupt practices, collusion among the "timber mafia" and the government. Despite that, Gibson believes it's on firm ground.

Plenty of people don't agree. EIA's Andrea Johnson told NPR:

"Gibson clearly understood the risks involved," says Johnson. "Was on the ground in Madagascar getting a tour to understand whether they could possibly source illegally from that country. [ed.: she says she meant "legally"] And made a decision in the end that they were going to source despite knowing that there was a ban on exports of ebony and rosewood."

Interestingly, Martin and Taylor Guitars are very vocal in their support for the Lacey Act. “The Lacey Act requires more due diligence on the part of the receiver of the wood than there was in the past. We can’t just take someone’s word that the wood we’re buying is legit," Bob Taylor said. "Even if your act was already clean, you’re going to have to clean it up even more.”

The Gibson case seems to be making people paranoid. Some lawyers are asserting that anybody who travels with a guitar overseas could get it ripped from their hands if it's got old-growth forest wood in it. Congress responds well to this kind of alarm; Tennessee lawmakers introduced a bill last fall to loosen Lacey regulation of instruments (more about that in a bit). Even so, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has explicitly said that Lacey Act enforcement won't target individual people, musicians or bands. They say Rosanne Cash is safe. (So do NRDC and legal scholar Jonathan Turley.)

The musician in Anaheim today is Razia Said. (Listen to Seattle-based KEXP's live set with her.) She grew up in Madagascar, in the northeast, Antalaha, and moved as she grew, landing in New York. There she sang jazz standards…until she toured Madagasar again. Now her sound includes some of the traditional stringed instruments of Malagasy music, and guitar. "The Masoala Rain Forest is being looted of it's irreplaceable endemic Rosewood trees. 1,000 trees a day are being ripped out from one of the worlds most bio-diverse habitats. Thousands of species are on the run and risk extinction as illegal loggers continue to strip the forest bare. The only way to stop the plunder is by drawing attention to the crime by involving local communities, Madagascar and the world."

So that's sort of generally why they're here. Tomorrow I'll write more specifically about the legislation that NAMM's lobbyists are pushing to weaken the Lacey Act, co-sponsored by California Republican Mary Bono Mack.

[Son House]

Luthier Mercantile, Inc. (LMI) has great white glue for instruments.

[Scoutmaster]

Luthier Mercantile, Inc. (LMI) has great white glue for instruments.

Yeah. They sell lots of stuff. Lots of wood - and a lot of it no doubt from their affiliate Theodor Nagel Gmbh. I bought exotic veneer from them several times years ago for jewelry boxes and lap desks.

But they botched up their August import from India.

In the year before that, Gibson had imported East Indian rosewood fretboard blanks about eleven times (I can get the exact dates) without a single snafu or raid by the government.

But LMI, among other things:

• changed the Harmonized Schedule (HS) designation on import documentation from the HS used to export the product;
• changed the HS to something that wasn't in the containers;
• wrote an incorrect description of the container contents on the import paperwork;
• didn't submit a Lacey Act declaration;
• listed Theodor Nagel as the ultimate consignee, at a Nashville address for the Red Arrow Delivery Service warehouse (which triggered interest, particularly without the Lacey declaration, because Nagel's clearly the subject of a DOJ investigation using the same agents who were inspecting the container);
• tried to submit a pre-dated Lacey declaration with a different description, and a different HS (still changed from the export HS), and a different ultimate consignee;
• had the name of a Gibson employee listed as the person to call at Nagel;
• had another shipment of wood from India sitting at the Red Arrow warehouse with import paperwork, but with an email telling Red Arrow to ignore the import paperwork because Gibson was actually the ultimate consignee; and
• a few added items

With the first of those, the changing of the HS, and others, like putting a false description on the paperwork, the wood because contraband, for better or worse. Given Gibson's dealings with Nagel in 1999, the government raided Gibson again.

LMI even asserted a claim in the forfeiture on the grounds that the wood may belong to them and not Gibson. If Gibson's out money (and the government didn't assert a claim to any East Indian rosewood, regardless of what the papers say), then Gibson has a claim against LMI for trying to sell it contraband.

I have some issues with the August 2011 raids, but I firmly believe the government has Gibson dead to rights with respect to 2009. And Gibson knew what it was going; it just didn't think it would be caught. The attitude in the industry is the same. People are uncomfortable with 2011 but think Gibson got what it deserved for knowingly buying illegal wood through a known illegal middleman from an illegal source.

[GreyFriar]

He has obviously done something to get the current administration mad at him. Of course if they run him out of business, then the Chinese can open up a guitar factory and sell them in the US as Glibsons and thus help give them more money to buy our debt with.

The other two companies were the once mentioned in the article at the beginning of this chain of posts.

I also forgot that the Dems say that every dollar given in unemployment and food stamps generates two dollars in the ecoomy. Causing Gibson to close his plant will put more folks on unemployment and food stamps thus causing the economy to expand. More unemployment, fewer real jobs ought to be this administrations election mantra

[dennisw]

 

(Has she ever held a real job where she did useful work? Has she ever worked in the dreaded private sector? Yet she presumes to judge Gibson and others who produce useful products and employ American workers. She is a fine example of the over educated eco-left saboteurs who hate American workers. Same as the anti-Excel pipeline fanatics)

 

Andrea Johnson (2004)

Fellowship Year: 2004

Academic Background: Yale School of Forestry - MS - (Environmental ScienceSocial Ecology)

Current Position: Forest Campaigns Coordinator , Environmental Investigation Agency

Andrea graduated from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2005 with a Master's in Environmental Science. After previous work on orangutans in Indonesia and macaw ecology in Peru, she shifted focus at Yale towards the social, financial, and political aspects of tropical conservation, conducting thesis work on Peru's Camisea Natural Gas Pipeline controversy and organizing on campus for more transparent endowment investment policies. Andrea's research interests include the role of field stations and other scientific institutions in applied conservation and the role of civil society organizations and North-South networks in environmental conflicts. After a brief stint in 2006 with the Native Species Reforestation Project (PRORENA) at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, Andrea has returned stateside. She is currently working as the Forest Campaigs Coordinator with the Environmental Investigation Agency, an NGO that uses undercover investigation and advocacy to document and expose international environmental crimes. Her focus will be on forests in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Expertise: Int'l Conservation & Developmt

See this fellow in:

Leadership, Collaborative, and Professional Grant Awards » A. Johnson - 2007 - Latin America Forests Campaign

Leadership, Collaborative, and Professional Grant Awards » A. Johnson - 2009 - Director of Forest Campaigns (Year 2)

News - Fellows » The Environmental Investigation Agency and Global Forest Conservation

Switzer Network News » The Environmental Investigation Agency

News - Fellows » Andrea Johnson interviewed on NPR re Lacey Act and how Gibson Guitar ran afoul of it with imported exotic wood

News - Fellows » Andrea Johnson has continued to defend the Lacey Act. Stories all this week, starting with Living on Earth

News - Fellows » Andrea Johnson quoted in Earth Island Journal article about human costs of illegal logging

News - Fellows » Andrea Johnson presented in Durban about illegal logging impacts

News - Fellows » Andrea Johnson gets message about Lacey Act out to all major news outlets

[Drew68]

I don’t have a guitar with a P-90 pickup....yet!

The P-90 is the pickup that punches you in the face!

It may be a single coil but it sounds nothing like the "traditional" glassy, jangly Fender single coil sound. It's a snarling, midrangy beast! Plugging a flat-top Les Paul Junior with a wrap-around tailpiece into a Marshall is one of the definitive sounds of classic rock. Full, ringing power chords and screaming, chirping leads are easily attained on this unsung little "student" guitar.

I love my Junior almost as much as the '58 Historic Reissue right below it. It's a monster of an axe! I bought it in '09 and immediately wondered where this guitar had been all my life.

[Scoutmaster]

The other two companies were the once mentioned in the article at the beginning of this chain of posts.

Taylor Guitars was "chosen" as a competitor of Gibson by conservative bloggers because Bob Taylor is an outspoken environmentalist. Is Gibson's CEO?

"The true wood guitar is disappearing quickly. We need to act now because it just won't be around in 10 years," said Henry Juszkiewicz, the chief executive of Gibson. In 2011. Bob Taylor never says stuff like that.

Gibson is an electric guitar company. Think Les Paul. The SG. B.B. King with his ES-355 variant, which he calls "Lucille." Heck, the acoustics are made way off in Bozeman, MT. They're nice, but that's not Gibson's bread and butter and acoustic manufactures are not Gibson's main competitors. Nobody walks in to buy a Les Paul and walks out with a Taylor or a Martin. Nobody.

In Guitar Center, the Taylors and Martins are back in another room, through doors, with a couple of the Gibsons from Bozeman. There's a wall of Gibson electrics with Fenders. And in a large Guitar Center (like three of them close to me), a room with Gibson and Fender high-ends.

Nobody's mad at him. In 2009, the government went after imports from Theodor Nagel from Madagascar. It just happened that Gibson was the company buying from them. Martin and Taylor didn't after the 'boots on the ground trip.' In 2011, the government went after *one* bogus shipment by LMI. If the government was after Gibson, then it would have snagged the other dozen imports from India by Gibson.

Do you realize that Gibson didn't blame politics and the government until *after* several conservative bloggers who were also wildly against Lacey and the idea of 'illegal wood' posted all of the accusations? And printed lies about Henry J's Republican ties?

And there's no "Gibson" to close his plant. Henry J. and David Berryman own it and the amounts they've lost are tiny compared to revenues. Henry J. played this for press and increased revenues. Sales went through the roof once he starting singing the Tea Party Persecution Blues. And Henry J's laughing all the way to the bank - and giving the money to the Rainforest Alliance, the Clinton Global Initiative, the John Lennon bus museum tour, Democrat Representative Cooper, the poetry slam for diversity, and his other causes.

[GreyFriar]

My objection is that the justice department has seized Gibson assets with out court order or any other legal reason. It is acting as a dictatorial power center in an administration that is pursuing the establishment of a dictatorship through the guise of a people’s socialist “republic.”

Besides, fenders should be on cars, not guitars.

[MaxMax]

1,000 trees a day

Just like the hyperbole of the 70's when we were all told that tens of thousands
of acres of forest a day was being torn down and burned.
Then technology caught up and blew their lie out of the water.
Some treehuggers never got the meme.

[Scoutmaster]

has seized Gibson assets with out court order or any other legal reason.

If you drive from Nevada into California and are stopped an agricultural inspection station, the folks from California will seize your produce without a court order. The legal reason is there's a California law saying you can't bring it is.

In Mexico, you can buy western boots, an belts, and wallets, made from sea turtle. At the border checkpoints in Texas or California, your boots. or belt, or wallet, will be confiscated as contraband. It's illegal to own in the U.S. under CITES (a simplification).

If you are pulled over for a traffic stop and the back of your pickup is stacked with packages of cigarettes that don't have tax stamps on them, they'll be confiscated as contraband, because the law says they're contraband without tax stamps.

If you are arrested for domestic abuse and the cops find a meth lab, they'll seize the meth without a court order to do so.

The seizures at Gibson have gotten publicity, but there are hundreds and hundreds of other Lacey Act seizures. Some involve South Florida landscapers trying to bring in exotic and 'endangered' plants whose export is illegal from the countries of origin. The plants are automatically contraband. That's the 'legal reason' for seizing them. Many others involve wood flooring companies bringing in exotic hardwood flooring made of species which are illegal to export from the country of origin. Again, automatically contraband - and that's the 'legal reason' for confiscating.

The wood seized from Gibson (a) wasn't the product listed on the export papers and was therefore contraband; (b) became contraband when LMI switched the HS codes, twice, from export to import to final declaration; (c) became contraband when LMI (an expert) imported it without a Lacey Act declaration; (d) became contraband when LMI put a false ultimate designee on the customs paperwork; (e) became contraband when LMI put a false written description of the contents of the containers on the import paperwork; and (f) a few other reasons.

One USFWS was called in they saw three things: (a) contraband; (b) Theodor Nagel Gmbh, LMI (a Nagel company, and Gibson involved - the same parties from the 2009 transaction in which Gibson employee Gene Nix had alerted Gibson that the purchase from Nagel and Thunam was illeal; and (c) another LMI/Gibson shipment through Canada, also with bogus paperwork.

Gibson had a search warrant. Gibson had to file its seizure notice with a federal judge and Gibson (and LMI and Nagel) had a chance to protest the seizure.

And Fenders should be in Stevie Ray Vaughn's hands, or Jimi Hendrix's, God rest their souls.

[Scoutmaster]

Some treehuggers never got the meme.

Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz is a treehugger. The bloggers who wrote about the August 2011 raids never did their homework on Henry J.

He once sat for an interview with The Independent:

The head of Gibson, home of the Les Paul guitar, has warned that the rare and exotic woods used to craft the best instruments are running out at such a rate that the guitar could become an endangered species.

"The true wood guitar is disappearing quickly. We need to act now because it just won't be around in 10 years," said Henry Juszkiewicz, the chief executive of Gibson, whose instruments are brandished by rock legends including Slash, Dave Grohl and Jimmy Page. The wood traditionally used to fashion premium guitars – rosewood, maple, ebony, mahogany and spruce – is being lost as a result of over-harvesting and the depletion of rainforests.

Henry J. is a founding member of the Rainforest Alliance and was on the Board of Directors until Gibson was busted for buying illegal Madgacar ebony in 2009. Henry J. is still a member. The Rainforest Alliance believes in man-made global warming and has programs and literature to promote this idea.

Henry J. is a founding member of a group that set up a program to set up a certification program for the harvesting of rare trees (although Gibson didn't follow that protocol in 2011, but claimed it did in the press release, and the group had to issue a disclosure on its website).

According to Gibson's website:

Gibson, the celebrated US guitar manufacturer, has pledged to eliminate illegal timber from its supply chain and has made a commitment to source all timber from FSC-certified forests in the near future.

1,000 trees a day? The FSC- group that Gibson has aligned itself with directly - and aligned itself through the Rainforest Alliance with over a dozen years ago back when Henry J. helped found the Rainforest Alliance, says:

Every year an area half the size of the UK is cleared of natural forests: temperate and tropical, North and South and on every continent.

If you want a treehugger, you don't have to look any further than Gibson's CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz.

[j_tull]

I like my maple fretboard. Good enough for Gilmour? Good enough for me?

[j_tull]

Wow, he could have one set up with every tuning known to man, and some that aren’t!

[jdsteel]

I like the maple fretbaord on my P-bass, but for some reason I really prefer rosewood on a 6 string. Viva le differance!

[MaxMax]

I appreciate the information since I didn't follow up on the story when it broke.
I went to google and searched for seeds and they are for sale online. How tough they
are to grow is another thing but they're there for the planting, and reasonable.

I once contracted for a company out of Maine whose family planted over a hundred
black walnut trees to hand down to the children with the land. They told me
the value of those trees was about 10k per. You would think that companies would
create their own groves to rotate over decades for a constant supply. /shrug
But I would guess that the Ten years down the road keeps being ten years every year,
same as the drilling for oil shun.

/salute

[tsomer]

Actually, it does grow in the extreme south of this country. It’s a legume and some varieties grow pretty quickly.

Dalbergia Sissoo, an Indian rosewood variety is planted for shade.

It’s not generally considered native, but some Central American varieties may have spread naturally. Wish I could say for sure, but it seems possible.

[tsomer]

Hi,

Can’t help but think most of the woods they designate as Rosewood are in fact unrelated to the genus, just a marketing label.

I have a piece of wood I bought once called “Tiete Rosewood” I don’t know the species, couldn’t find out at the time, but I know it’s not a member of the Dalbergia genus.

Dalbergia timber is very expensive; $20 bft or so raw.