The collection comprises sculptural pieces hand carved out of lustrous African blackwood, including a ring, pendant, earrings, brooch and bangle.

The pieces are imbued with pink rubies and 18ct gold.

The collection Africa East is so called as the African blackwood is sustainably harvested in Tanzania and the fair trade rubies are sourced from Malawi.

The collection evolved from a recent Candescent project, where founder and designer, Tanya Bowd, collaborated with Sound & Fair to celebrate the recent Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of the African blackwood forests in Tanzania.

Normally used in the making of oboes and clarinets, a concert showcasing instruments crafted from FSC African blackwood featured alongside the Africa East jewellery collection, worn by the classical musicians.

FSC-certification ensures that forest dependent people in Tanzania now benefit directly from their natural resources whilst protecting the environment.

The pink rubies are from a fair trade mine situated on the summit of Chimwadzulu Hill in southern Malawi, and are of a rare quality, being naturally radiant and untreated.

Eco gold is used to add luminosity and contrast to the beauty of the wood, true to the Candescent name.

Further information:

Candescent

www.ecoluxelondon.org

In the absence of any legislation forcing such thinking, voluntary ethics have been conspicuous by their absence.

The Lacey Act, quite simply, is a game changer.

Now US manufacturers that operate opaque, third-party brokered supply chains risk seeing armed Federal agents seizing wood from their manufacturing plants.

Similar legislation will be introduced in EU countries in 2013, although it’s hard to envisage armed European agents enforcing the new ‘due diligence’ regulations.

The solution for manufacturers is simple: invest in and understand the supply chain for the product that is fundamental to your business.

The only way to ensure legality is to demand full traceability and transparency at all levels of the supply chain, a process that engenders faith that what you’re buying is what is claims to be.

FSC-certification is the first step: not FSC Controlled Wood which is merely a risk assessment in the country of origin, but fully transparent FSC-certification with its third-party verified assurances of environmental, social and economic sustainability.

However, FSC-certification on its own is not enough. Like any system, FSC-certification can be abused and as the Gibson case has shown there are legal nuances in countries of origin that may not be picked up under FSC.

So whilst demanding FSC-certified wood as standard, manufacturers need to develop close relationships with their wood suppliers, working together to develop faith that everyone is playing by the new rules.

Of course all this means more time and money, but the fact is that the cost of wood is a tiny proportion of the overall cost of an instrument such as Gibson guitar. The value is added in the workshop as the instrument takes shape.

A small price premium to guarantee legal and ethical wood is surely a small price for manufacturers to pay for peace of mind that the Feds won’t be knocking on their door?

Background on Gibson guitars and the Lacey Act

1. On 24 August 2011, Gibson guitars’ US premises were raided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as part of an investigation into alleged breaches of the Lacey Act, a law requiring that all wood products imported into the USA come from legal sources.

2. The raid concerned Indian ebony and rosewood supplied under an FSC Controlled Wood certificate held by an Indian wood supplier, Atheena, Whilst the export of such wood from India is legal under certain circumstances, mistakes seem to have been made with the paperwork prepared by brokers, meaning that the wood was incorrectly labelled and this led to the seizure of wood from Gibson’s premises.

3. In a statement following the raid, Gibson said: “The wood the Government seized on August 24 is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier and is FSC Controlled, meaning that the wood complies with the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council”. Gibson’s statement was misleading as the wood itself was not actually FSC-certified. The result was widespread misinterpretation by the press with numerous articles falsely claiming that the wood in question was FSC-certified.

4. FSC Controlled Wood entails a risk assessment of the source of supply without any independent verification or tracking to ensure compliance. In contrast, FSC-certified wood provides a fully transparent chain of custody, tracing wood back to its forest source with the added assurance of independent, third party verification to ensure compliance.

5. Following widespread misreporting, FSC-US subsequently issued its own statement: “While Gibson has shown important sector leadership by stimulating demand for FSC-certified wood, the federal investigation addresses the wood they use that is not FSC certified.  FSC-certification is a component of due care that companies can use, but unless 100% of the wood used is FSC certified, other mechanisms are required too. In this instance, it is the non-certified wood that is being questioned.”

6. Sound & Fair recognises Gibson’s genuine efforts to introduce sustainable practises in its supply chain. The company was after all one of the first music companies to become FSC-certified and the Gibson CEO was until recently a Board member of then Rainforest Alliance, a founding FSC partners. However, this case highlights the value for musical instrument manufacturers in aiming to source 100% pure, FSC-certified wood wherever possible from fully transparent supply chains.

7. In addition to originating from a traceable chain of custody, FSC-certified wood is independently verified as complying with the Forest Stewardship Council’s internationally recognised set of principles. These criteria provide buyers with an assurance of socially beneficial, environmentally appropriate and economically viable forestry management and manufacturers can promote their products with the FSC Logo.

8. FSC Controlled Wood offers no such assurances and wood sold in this way should never be misinterpreted as being in compliance with the strict ethical and legal standards required by FSC-certification.

9. Gibson is already under investigation in a separate Lacey Act case concerning the purchase of Madagascan rosewood. Wood was seized from Gibson’s USA premises in November 2009 and a prosecution under the Lacey Act is pending.

Sound & Fair presents The Haffner Reed Trio with Kathryn Stott – piano takes place at West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, UK, on Saturday 28 May 2011.

The concert marks the culmination of the Comic Relief-funded, Sound and Fair campaign to realise a sustainable trade in African blackwood. The world’s first FSC-certified woodwind instrument made by Hanson Clarinets will be showcased at the event.

Nicholas Daniel, says: “It is no longer acceptable that anyone is treated unfairly in the making of our beautiful instruments, or that someone in a country far away suffers as a result of our search for beauty. We can help directly in this situation, and we can make a difference. We just need to express our commitment and enthusiasm for FSC-certified wood with our makers, and make it clear that we want a fair deal for forest-dependent people in Tanzania.”

The concert programme will include works by Elgar, Poulenc, Milhaud, Schumann and Piazzolla performed by Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Joy Farrall (clarinet), Sarah Burnett (bassoon) and Kathyn Stott (piano).

Kathryn Stott says: “In these times, there really is no need for the local people in Tanzania to be suffering from poor working conditions. Musical instruments bring great joy to performers and listeners alike – lets share that with the people who are at the very source.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Date / time: 730pm, Saturday 28th May 2011

Venue: West Road Concert Hall, Faculty of Music, 11 West Rd, Cambridge, CB3 9DP

Tickets: £15 / £10 (OAP) / £5 (students)

Available from the Cambridge Corn Exchange Box Office – Tel: 01223 357 851

(Press passes available on request from Neil Bridgland – details below)

Sound & Fair

Hanson Clarinets

West Road Concert Hall

Nicholas Daniel

Kathryn Stott

Images, interviews and press passes available on request from:

Neil Bridgland – neil@soundandfair.org / +44 (0) 7919 092 189

MUSICIAN BIOGRAPHIES

Nicholas Daniel

Nicholas Daniel’s career began at the age of 18 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. At his BBC Proms debut in 1992, the Sunday Times described him as one of the greatest exponents of the oboe in the world. Today, one of the UK’s most distinguished soloists, as well as a successful conductor, he has become an important ambassador for music and musicians in many different fields.

Nicholas has been heard on every continent and has been a concerto soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras. He has worked under conductors including Sakari Oramo, Sir Roger Norrington, Oliver Knussen, Richard Hickox and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. In addition to his extensive experience in baroque and 19th-century music, he is an important force in the creation and performance of new repertoire for oboe, and has premiered works by composers including Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Henri Dutilleux, Thea Musgrave, Nigel Osborne, John Tavener and Sir Michael Tippett.

An active chamber musician, Nicholas is a founder member of the Haffner Wind Ensemble and the Britten Oboe Quartet and enjoys a long history of collaboration with the pianist Julius Drake and the Maggini and Lindsay string quartets. His duo with Julius Drake was described in The Independent as “vital, thoughtful and confirmed in musical integrity of the highest order.”

As a conductor, Nicholas has worked with orchestras in the UK and in Europe, most recently in Germany and in Sweden, and, as Associate Artistic Director of the Britten Sinfonia, he conducts this award-winning orchestra regularly. He is oboist to the California-based chamber ensemble Camerata Pacifica and is Artistic Director of the Leicester International Festival. He teaches in the UK and in Germany, where is he Professor of Oboe at the Musikhochschule, Trossingen.

Read more on Nicholas Daniel

Kathryn Stott

Kathryn Stott is recognised internationally as one of Britain’s most versatile and imaginative musicians and among today’s most engaging pianists. Her curiosity and wide-ranging interests have taken her in many different directions, forging a unique career and establishing a rare reputation. A modest and natural collaborator, she is in demand for a wide variety of chamber music alliances, playing with some of the world’s leading instrumentalists, as well as appearing on major international concert platforms in recitals and concerto performances. She has also directed several distinctive concert series and festivals and has developed an extensive and exceptionally varied catalogue of recordings.

Born in Lancashire, she studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Vlado Perlemuter and Nadia Boulanger then at the Royal College of Music in London with Kendall Taylor. In 1978 she attracted critical attention as an outstanding young prize-winner at the Leeds International Piano Competition. In addition to her busy career as a performer worldwide, she is visiting professor at both the Royal Academy of Music, London and Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester.

As a concerto soloist Kathryn Stott enjoys associations with major orchestras in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France, Hong Kong, Australia and Japan. It says much about her as an artist and colleague that she is a favoured partner of many leading musicians, This season she celebrates a fruitful quarter-of-a-century partnership with Yo-Yo Ma, in concerts, on tours and on recordings. Other cellists with whom she works regularly include Truls Mørk, Christian Poltéra, Guy Johnston and Natalie Clein. She appears with violinist Janine Jansen and pianist Noriko Ogawa, while future collaborations include projects with violinists Henning Kraggerud, Valeriy Sokolov, Alina Ibragimova; violist Maxim Rysanov; cellist Torleif Thedeen; clarinettist Martin Fröst; oboist Christoph Hartmann; and baritone Audun Iverson. She has developed shared musical interests with an eclectic group of performers including the guitar-playing Assad Brothers, bandoneonist Nestor Marconi, double-bassist Edgar Meyer, and clarinettist Paquito d’Rivera. A close involvement with many leading string quartets has led to regular guest appearances with the Belcea, Skampa and Endellion Quartets, as well as with the Lindsays. In addition to this she has made nearly a dozen appearances at the BBC Proms.

Read more on Kathryn Stott

Sarah Burnett

Sarah is an active freelance orchestral player working as guest Principal Bassoon with a wide variety of orchestras nationwide. She was Principal Bassoon of Glyndebourne on Tour from 1996-2010, leaving the world of opera behind in order to take up her position as Principal Bassoon of the London Mozart Players in June, 2010. Sarah is also Principal of The Britten Sinfonia and the Haffner Wind Ensemble, joining them in 2002.  Teaching is one of her passions and great commitments; she currently holds the position as Professor of Bassoon at the Royal College of Music and at the Birmingham Conservatoire and teaches at the Purcell School and at Eton College, as well as giving masterclasses nationwide.

Sarah read Music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, then studied at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1993, she gained a scholarship to study with Klaus Thunemann at the Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater in Hanover, Germany. In her formative years, she was Principal Bassoon of both the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the European Union Youth Orchestra.

As both a soloist and chamber musician, Sarah has played in festivals worldwide, as well as given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Fairfield Halls, the Bridgewater Hall and at the Pump Room in Cheltenham. She also appears regularly in broadcasts for BBC Radio 3.

No stranger to the recording studio; her most recent sessions include music for Harry Potter, Walking With Dinosaurs, Dr Who and for the forthcoming albums for Peter Gabriel and Brittney Spears.

The FSC-certification of Hanson Clarinets, the UK’s largest clarinet manufacturer, completes the world’s first FSC chain of custody for sustainably harvested African blackwood.

The chain of custody links all handlers of FSC-certified African blackwood, starting with forest harvesters in Tanzania and ending with instrument manufacturers and retailers in the West, providing consumers with independent verification that the wood used to produce their instruments originates from a sustainable source.

Alastair Hanson, Co-Founder of Hanson Clarinets says: “We are proud to become the world’s first FSC-certified maker of woodwind instruments. We buy our wood responsibly to help safeguard the hugely valuable natural resources of the tropical forests that provide the material needed to make clarinets.

“We hope that our commitment will help persuade other makers to join in protecting endangered species and in turn work to protect the future for forests, wildlife, communities and of course music.”

The world’s first harvest of FSC-certified African blackwood was carried out in December 2009 in a Village Land Forest Reserve managed by Kikole village, southern Tanzania, under the guidance of the Mpingo Conservation Project.

Kikole received a payment of around £1,200 in return for 15m³ of African blackwood, a sum 400 times greater more than they would have received before FSC-certification.

The wood is currently being processed at an FSC-certified sawmill in Tanzania and will shortly be exported to the UK.

Neil Bridgland, Sound & Fair Campaign Manager, says: “This a massive step forward in our campaign to realise a sustainable trade in African blackwood timber and help lift some of the world’s poorest people out of poverty.

“Many years of hard work have gone into creating the required infrastructure in Tanzania to export FSC-certified hardwoods and now we have the commitment of one of the UK’s major woodwind instrument manufacturers to drive the process through.

“Very soon clarinet players will be able to make purchasing decisions based on ethical considerations as well as quality.”

Hanson Clarinets expect to launch the world’s first FSC-certified clarinet in late-2010.

DOWNLOAD PDF VERSION OF PRESS RELEASE – 21 APRIL 2010

Some of the world’s poorest people have opened up a new source of revenue by selling the world’s first sustainably harvested African blackwood from their forests.

The timber harvest was carried out under the strict criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and is destined for woodwind instrument manufacturers in the UK.

The harvest is the first step in a new campaign called Sound and Fair which aims to realise a sustainable trade in African blackwood through a fully-certified chain of custody linking village communities in Tanzania to woodwind instrument musicians in the UK.

The timber was felled in late 2009 in a Village Land Forest Reserve managed by Kikole village, in Kilwa District, south-eastern Tanzania. Kikole received a payment of around £1,200 in return for 15 cubic metres of African Blackwood.

Previously the community would only have received around five pence per log. In all Kikole were able to realise an income nearly 400 times more than they would have received previously on the 63 logs which were sold.

Kikole intend to spend the money they have raised on improving the road to the village, improving market access for impoverished farmers and providing local employment.

Mr Mwinyimkuu Awadhi, Chairman of Kikole village, comments: “In 2009 the communities of Kikole Village we have realized for the first time the benefits from selling our own timber. All the money was paid to the villages unlike in the past where by this money would have gone to the government. We the villagers now have full control of our forest resources and we will benefit even more when we do more harvesting in the near future.”

Local resident, Mwanaisha Likoko adds: “Changes have come to our village through the forest we own and manage under our control, the money we have received will be used within our village to improve our social services.”

Kikole’s forest reserve was established in 2006 after the District Council approved a management plan which the community had prepared setting out how they intended to manage the forest sustainably.

In 2009, Kikole became the FSC certified, community-managed forest in Africa, via an FSC-group certificate managed by the Mpingo Conservation Project, the Sound and Fair campaign’s Tanzanian partner.

Neil Bridgland, Sound and Fair Campaign Manager says: “This harvest represents a sea change for forest communities in Southern Tanzania.  For the first time, they have security over their natural resources and can reap the benefits from them. The challenge now is to persuade UK classical music instrument manufacturers and users to accept FSC certified timber as standard so creating the necessary demand for African blackwood that will enable the roll-out of Kikole’s success across Southern Tanzania.”

Jasper Makala, National Coordinator of MCP in Tanzania says: “Community forestry is not just about giving local people a stake in how the forests are managed, but ensuring they can reap the benefits. This is both social justice and effective conservation.”

From Kikole village, the wood will soon be taken to an FSC certified sawmill, where it will be sawn into billets for export to the UK.

Dr Azim Fazal, Director of the sawmill, Sandali Wood Industries, says: “This is a proud moment for us. Now we hope that Western buyers will embrace FSC certification and start discouraging enterprises who harvest and process irresponsibly.”

On arrival the wood must then be properly seasoned (dried out), a process which takes at least one year. It is expected that the first FSC-certified blackwood instruments will be available in the UK from summer 2011.

DOWNLOAD PDF OF PRESS RELEASE – 19 JANUARY 2010

Some of the world’s poorest people have achieved international recognition for responsible forest management, and a golden opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty, through selling responsibly harvested timber for musical instruments

Two communities in Tanzania, working through the Mpingo Conservation Project (MCP), have obtained the first certificate for community-managed natural forest in Africa. This landmark achievement will enable the communities to earn 250 times more from their woodlands – by managing them responsibly – than they have done previously.

The certificate is awarded by the international body, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which promotes responsible management of the world’s forests.

The main timber that will be harvested and sold internationally by the Tanzanian communities is African Blackwood (also known as mpingo), a slow growing tree which is highly prized for making clarinets, oboes and bagpipes. The FSC certificate will enable communities to earn upwards of US$19 (£13) per log compared to 8 cents (5 pence) they received before the MCP began working with them.

Under the system of Participatory Forest Management (PFM), which is enshrined in Tanzanian law, communities can take over ownership and control of their local forests from the government, allowing them to profit from timber sales, as long as they manage the forests sustainably. However, with illegal logging widespread, there is a need to differentiate timber coming from community forests from other sources if communities are to receive a fair price; the new FSC certificate does that.

A small collection of villages in south-east Tanzania have been working with MCP since 2004 to achieve this historic first for African people, offering new hope for the twin goals of poverty alleviation and forest protection on the continent.

Mr Mwinyimkuu Awadhi, Chairman of Kikole village, comments: “previously we just used blackwood without thought, but we have learnt that it is a valuable resource. now we see that we can utilise our stocks to benefit us all as villagers.”

Local farmer, Mwanaiba Ali Mbega (female), adds: “when we started this project we began to see the benefits that could arise from managing our forests. Now we have reached the stage of certification we are confident we are going to bring long term benefits that we will be able to pass on to our grand-children.”

The first timber will be harvested by the villagers in May/June this year. The wood must then be properly dried, a process which takes at least one year, and it is expected that the first FSC-certified blackwood instruments will be available sometime in 2011.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The Mpingo Conservation Project (MCP) aims to conserve endangered forest habitats in east Africa by promoting sustainable and socially equitable harvesting of valuable timber stocks, and with a particular focus on mpingo – the African Blackwood tree – which is used to make clarinets, oboes and bagpipes.

2. The Forest Stewardship Council’s forest certification standard is recognised as the global gold standard for responsible forest management. Most FSC-certified forests are commercially-owned temperate or boreal forests; few are in the tropics, and even fewer are community-owned. MCP has been awarded certificate no. SA-FM/COC-002151 by FSC; it covers 2,420ha of forest at this initial stage.

3. The African Blackwood tree has long been over-harvested across the continent to obtain its dark, lustrous heartwood. The wood is greatly prized for its strong structural qualities by local wood carvers and international manufacturers of woodwind instruments. Although African Blackwood is still relatively abundant in south-east Tanzania, illegal logging is widespread and very poor, forest-dependent communities generally receive little benefit from logging on the land around their villages.

DOWNLOAD PDF VERSION OF PRESS RELEASE – APRIL 2009