{"id":18886,"date":"2014-05-29T23:41:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T03:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=18886"},"modified":"2014-06-13T21:23:04","modified_gmt":"2014-06-14T01:23:04","slug":"the-elephant-and-the-frog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=18886","title":{"rendered":"The Elephant and The Frog"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robyn Guilliams \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dear Law & Order<\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been hearing a lot about a recent U.S. ban on ivory that will prevent string players from transporting their instruments in and out of the country.\u00a0 However, I recently travelled to Europe and back with my cello (my bow has a small ivory inlay in the frog), with no problem.\u00a0 What\u2019s the story?<\/i><\/p>\n

What a great question!\u00a0 There has been a lot of press lately about the \u201cnew\u201d ban on ivory, which will affect musicians whose instruments contain even a tiny amount of ivory.\u00a0 Although a number of issues related to the ban are yet unresolved, here\u2019s what we know thus far:<\/p>\n

The ban is not really new. U.S. law has prohibited items containing ivory, Brazilian rosewood and tortoiseshell from being brought into or taken from the U.S. for a number of years. (Many other countries have similar laws.) \u00a0While these laws haven\u2019t been enforced in the past, the U.S. recently signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (known as the CITES treaty) with 189 other countries.\u00a0 The purpose of the CITES treaty is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.\u00a0 Save the elephants and the sea turtles!<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the governments participating in CITES realized that the treaty rules would make it impossible for some musicians to travel internationally with their instruments.\u00a0 For this reason, CITES provides that musicians may obtain a certificate (or “passport”) that will allow them to transport internationally instruments that contain ivory\u00a0and\/or rosewood, and other banned materials (such as certain types of wood and sea turtle shell). \u00a0The passport, which is good for three years and is attached to the person, not the instrument (i.e., it’s not transferable), will allow the musician to travel with his\/her instrument throughout the 189 countries without any problems (in theory).<\/p>\n

There is no question that, at some point in the future, musicians with instruments containing ivory, rosewood, etc., who wish to travel internationally with their instruments must obtain this passport. However, at this point, there still are serious problems with the passport system:<\/p>\n