Natural capital investment manager New Forests has launched a fund to help Japanese paper-products manufacturer Oji Holdings meet its 2030 environmental goals.
Oji Holdings will invest close to US$300m (€276m) to establish Future Forests Innovations Fund, a vehicle that will invest in forestry plantations in Southeast Asia, North America, Latin America and Africa.
New Forests is co-investing and will seek to generate both financial returns and climate benefits.
Oji is targeting an additional 1.5m tCO2e per annum of net sequestration by 2030 from the forestry assets it acquires.
The company already owns 635,000 hectares of plantations globally and is looking to invest in an additional 70,000 hectares, including greenfield and brownfield assets.
Forestry fund managers like New Forests are increasingly branching out from managing traditional timberland investments on behalf of institutional investors to carbon sequestration strategy, often on behalf of corporates looking to manage their net-zero objectives.
New Forests said it would draw on its 20 years of experience of managing forests. “We are continuing to see momentum and interest from corporates looking to invest in forestry and the natural capital asset class,” said CEO Mark Rogers.
“By investing in sustainable forest plantations in four major regions of the world, we will be assisting Oji to achieve their 2030 mission of growing their sustainable forestry assets and reducing overall carbon emissions.”
The Future Forest Innovations Fund is an open-ended vehicle registered in Singapore, meaning it could potentially recieve investment from other corporates and investors.
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