African Blackwood Conservation
Conserving timber stocks for the wooden flutes of the future.
Martin Doyle supports the protection and sustainable use of the timber known in East Africa as Mpingo. Known in the west as African Blackwood, the botanical name for Mpingo is Dalbergia Melanoxylon. A dense and durable timber with exceptional tonal properties, Mpingo has been used extensively by woodwind instrument makers and luthiers since the first European colonists began sending the heavy black wood from Africa to Europe as ship ballast. Further back in time, African Blackwood is also reputed to have been valued by the Egyptians for furniture making.
The Music Tree
In September of 2009, Martin Doyle visited Tanzania to assist with the making of The Music Tree — a radio documentary that highlights local attempts to preserve this precious resource by promoting the sustainable and socially equitable production of Mpingo timber. The Music Tree was produced by Nina Perry of Falling Tree Productions for radio NewsTalk FM in Ireland.
Flutes for Africa
While in Tanzania, Martin was able to produce an Irish flute with the participation of a group of wood carvers in Dar es Salaam using local tools and machinery. For the Tanzanians, it was the first time that they had ever seen a wind instrument produced from their beloved Mpingo timber. For Martin Doyle, who has predominantly worked alone during his career as a flute maker, it was unique experience to see how the Tanzanians worked as a team to accomplish the task of making a flute with great enthusiasm, energy and ingenuity.
Having fulfilled the initial goal of making a flute, Martin travelled inland from Dar es Salaam to meet the people who are nurturing the new model for the sustainable production of Mpingo timber. The Mpingo tree has been considered sacred by the Tanzanians for centuries and is the national tree of Tanzania.
African Blackwood — then and now
Historically speaking, it has been impossible to know the origin of the timber that ends up in the workshops of instrument makers around the world. This is changing with modern identification systems. For many decades it was government entities or foreign interests that controlled and benefited from the exportation of African Blackwood from countries such as Mozambique and Tanzania. Illegal poaching and smuggling has also had a huge impact. The result of this was that the people who lived in and around the forests received little or nothing except the lose of the habitat that had traditionally sustained their existence.
Today there is a change happening. Conservation groups have begun to systematically manage the harvesting of the Mpingo forests. Ethically harvested African Blackwood can now be identified and traced to its origin through marking systems that assure the people who grow, harvest and manage the forests will receive financial benefit for their efforts. Profits are reinvested into the timber crops and also used to fund the social needs of the local communities. This new way of managing the maintenance distribution of the timber
Supporting the sustainable use of African Blackwood
This new approach to the management of African Blackwood is in its infancy — a sapling in iteslf, one might say, that brings hope and optimism for the people who will have the opportunity to manage and maintain their natural resource. By supporting the efforts of organisations such as The Mpingo Conservation Project and by becoming more conscious of where African Blackwood comes from and the process that occurs to get it to the people who work with it, we can all help to assure that there will be good stocks of timber available for future generations. By purchasing African Blackwood that is certified as ethically grown and harvested, we can support the people who live where the timber is grown and who are now playing a key role in the sustainable management of this precious resource.
From the point of view of the end user, the instrument makers, there comes the knowledge that the money they are spending goes to the people who helped produce the timber that they are buying and that it will be used to service the needs of their profession in the future. Users of African Blackwood and other rare tonewoods can easily learn to identify the companies that are moving the legally grown and exported timber and avoid purchasing timber that has been poached.
The following organisations are at the forefront in the conservation of the Mpingo tree.
African Blackwood:
- The Mpingo Conservation Project — promoting the sustainable use of East African Blackwood.
- African Blackwood Conservation Project — helping to replenish African Blackwood in Tanzania.
- Sound & Fair — a campaign to realise a sustainable trade in African Blackwood.
Other Tonewoods:
- Musicwood — The Greenpeace Music Wood Campaign.
Related Pages:
- Environment Tanzania: Protecting the World's Most Expensive Tree — Inter Press Service New Agency
- Sustainable forest management increases local income one hundred-fold — Birdlife International
- African blackwood — a sound choice for the woodwind musician — New Agriculturist
- Tanzania tree strikes right note — BBC News
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