While working undercover for London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in a Madagascan sawmill in a few years ago, ex-Marine and Harvard graduate Sascha Von Bismark came across towers of ebony guitar fingerboards. When he returned to the U.S., he followed a paper trail that showed the fingerboards were being sold to Gibson Guitar-the same company currently at the center of a Lacey Act controversy.
Von Bismark's story is now the basis for a documentary airing on the UK's BBC Two titled "Madagascar, Lemurs and Spies." Posing as timber buyers in order to infiltrate Madagascar's "timber mafia," Von Bismark and a colleague went to Madagascar and eventually dealt with Roger Thunam, "the biggest timber baron in Madagascar," according to an account written by Von Bismark for the UK's Daily Mail.
Using hidden cameras and GPS systems, Von Bismark documented ebony and rosewood stands Thunam was planning to cut down. Von Bismark also documented how the loggers hunted "threatened" animals like the red ruffed lemur for food.
The investigation against Gibson is ongoing, and formal charges have not yet been brought against the company. Although the documentary is posted online here, it is currently unavailable outside the UK.
