Illegally logged wood near the Masoala National Park in Madagascar

On August 24th, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, a federal government agency, raided Gibson guitar’s offices and factories in Nashville and Memphis – for the second time in a two-year period. The federal authorities confiscated guitars made of tropical hardwoods, pallets of wood from endangered trees and delivery documents. Gibson is accused of having twelve deliveries of ebony and rosewood illegally imported from India in the course of two years. In November 2009, federal agents had already paid Gibson a visit and their search had been a success: Back then, Gibson had imported illegally logged rosewood from Madagascar.

Additional information

Apart from its factories in the United States, the Gibson group manufactures guitars in China as well. The biggest part of the timber illegally logged in Madagascar is shipped to the Asian country.

Please sign our letter to Gibson and make the company replace imported exotic wood with local timber species.