US EditionTaylor Guitars Conservation Partnership Reveals Critical Link Between African Forest Elephants and Guitars
Research reveals African forest elephants are crucial for dispersing seeds of ebony trees, vital for guitar fingerboards; elephant decline threatens both species and instrument sustainability.
- On August 28, 2025, Taylor Guitars shared new research revealing that African forest elephants are essential to the survival of ebony trees, key to guitar fingerboards.
- This study builds on nearly ten years of conservation work that started after Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars acquired an ebony milling facility in Cameroon in 2011 and later connected with UCLA biologist Tom Smith in 2016.
- The study shows elephants disperse ebony seeds via dung, which protects seeds from rodents and enables higher survival, while poaching has caused a 68% drop in ebony saplings and increased inbreeding.
- Bob Taylor emphasized that ebony fingerboards are found on nearly all guitars, underscoring the critical link between the wood’s availability and efforts to protect elephants and the environment.
- The Ebony Project’s community-driven efforts have planted over 40,000 ebony and 20,000 fruit trees, linking sustainable forest management to the future of musical instrument manufacturing.
35 Articles
35 Articles
As forest elephants plummet, ebony trees decline in Central Africa’s rainforests
In 2017, when Vincent Deblauwe joined the Cameroon-based Congo Basin Institute (CBI) to study African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) — economically valuable pitch-black, dense wood — the Indigenous Baka people accompanied him on his field trips. As they sat around campfires and trekked through the rainforests, Deblauwe tapped into their knowledge of flora and fauna, especially about ebony trees and their dispersal. They all told him that one anim…
There's a Musical Reason Why We Need Elephants
A new study highlights just how much African forest elephants mean for rainforests—and for the wood that ends up as piano keys and guitar fretboards. After Taylor Guitars' Bob Taylor purchased an ebony mill in Cameroon in 2011, he developed some questions, reports NPR : "How much ebony is there...
Taylor Guitars Conservation Partnership Reveals Critical Link Between African Forest Elephants and Guitars
Groundbreaking research published in Science Advances shows African ebony trees rely on elephants for survival—and the future of guitar fingerboards may depend on elephant conservation EL CAJON, Calif., Aug. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- After nearly a decade of community-driven conservation work in Cameroon, Taylor Guitars, the leading global builder of premium acoustic guitars, is pleased to share groundbreaking peer-reviewed research published in …
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