FSC Stories from around the world
Beautiful Music, Brand New Starts
In the heart of the Amazon, a group of children and young people attuned with conservation have become forest guardians in the most unique way. These young people, ages 14 to 21, are students of the Lutheria Office School of Amazonia, where they create hand-made musical instruments with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood.
Young people come to the school from the lowest social strata in Manaus, an inland city located in the heart of the Amazon along the Negro River, some 900 miles from the Atlantic Coast. The school provides these students with a reprieve from the poverty they have known all their lives, offering them marketable skills and an understanding of the importance of the responsible use of the forest that surrounds them.
Over the past four years, students have manufactured musical instruments from FSC-certified wood, and have sold them in the local markets in Brazil. The wood, primarily lesser-known species such as pau rainha(Brosimum rubescens) or cupuiba (Rubescens moraceae) are supplied by Gethal and Precious Wood, two Brazilian companies certified under the FSC system.
The school has an average 60 students in a basic course, who then graduate to a technical course that grants them in title of "Technician Luthier", enablig them to manufacture and repair musical instruments. Two graduates of the Lutheria School program work as instructors, training new pupils in the craft.
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