NAMM Members Represented at the CoP 19 CITES Gathering

CITES COP 19

The nineteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP 19) convened Nov 14 – 25, 2022 in Panama City, Panama with NAMM member interests represented by Senior Policy Advisor Mary Luehrsen. Three major discussions relevant to the music industry took place concerning:

  1. Greater protection for Pernambuco — the Brazilian wood of choice for stringed instrument bow makers.
  2. The expansion of the musical instrument certificate program — which makes it easier for musicians to travel internationally with instruments containing protected species.
  3. The procedure for approving annotations for protected species

NAMM co-hosted an event for attendees representing more than 170 countries to provide an opportunity for the international music community to present its views on Pernambuco protections and the expansion of the musical instrument certificate program, as well as the procedure for approving annotations for protected species.

Information on these topics was submitted to the CITES Secretariat, in the three working languages of the Convention, Spanish, French, and English by a collective of more than 50 associations and companies. NAMM is a key member of the informal working group of music industry stakeholders that drafted the statements and continues to closely monitor CITES activities.