Joseph Doh Wook Kim & Phil Evans

UBC researchers have built an electric guitar from sustainably sourced mahogany, showing that environmentally responsible materials can deliver the same high-quality sound as endangered, native-grown wood. At UBC’s Centre for Advanced Wood Processing, PhD student Joseph Doh Wook Kim plays a flawless riff on an electric guitar made with plantation-grown Fijian mahogany. The sound is deep, warm and perfect… While native mahogany is regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Fijian variety is sustainably harvested, legally traded and grown in plantations. Dr. Phil Evans, a professor in the UBC Faculty of Forestry and “wood detective,” has worked with U.S. and Canadian enforcement agencies to identify CITES-listed timbers and combat illegal logging. Partnering with Environment and Climate Change Canada, he co-developed a chemical method for distinguishing plantation-grown mahogany from native wood, ensuring supply-chain transparency and reducing the risk of illegal logging.