FIRST FSC CERTIFIED CLARINET PRODUCED

The UK woodwind instrument maker, Hanson, has launched a clarinet made of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) - certified wood, meaning that the trees are grown and the forests managed sustainably according to an international standard. Hanson is using wood from the East African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) tree otherwise known as Mpingo, in Tanzania.

“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,” said Hanson co-founder, Alastair Hanson at the launch of the FSC-certified clarinet today in Manchester. FSC is an international non-profit organization established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the world’s forests-whereby local people earn income from the wood.

Mpingo wood has often used in making instruments – but now it is harvested responsibly in some forests in Tanzania. The woodwind industry is one of the primary drivers of illegal logging, with as much as 96% of wood exported from countries such as Tanzania being harvested illegally. This new FSC certification, will mean that local communities will reap a much higher profit for logging on their land. For example, the first FSC-mpingo harvest in the village of Kikole last year meant that the community earned roughly 400 times their previous incomes.

African blackwood is a slow growing tree that is highly prized for making clarinets, oboes and bagpipes. It has long been over-harvested across the continent to obtain its dark, lustrous heartwood.