GreenPoint’s Wyuna Regenerative Agriculture secures CEFC commitment to first fund

Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation has made another investment in an agriculture fund, committing up to A$30 million ($19 million; €19 million) to the Wyuna Regenerative Agriculture Investment Fund.

The CEFC announced the investment earlier this month, describing the fund’s strategy as “a hybrid sustainable grazing model, with the goal of delivering carbon credits alongside enhanced biodiversity protection and sustainable red meat production.”

Wyuna Regenerative Agriculture has been established by alternatives investment firm GreenPoint Partners in conjunction with Wyuna co-founder and CEO Steve Green. The firm aims to invest in agricultural properties in Australia and run nature-based carbon sequestration projects on pastoral land.

The platform already owns a portfolio covering approximately 40,500 ha, with Wyuna hoping to increase that to more than 200,000 ha over time.

Alongside the CEFC, the fund has also secured an anchor commitment of A$30 million from the global property firm, Goodman Group, as well as A$5 million from Wyuna’s founders.

The fund’s approach will see it pursue “responsible grazing” strategies, as well as satellite monitoring of ground cover and feed availability, use of imaging technology to monitor vegetation and biodiversity improvements, and a focus on improving soil carbon across its assets.

In a statement, CEFC investment director Michael Di Russo said: “We are pleased to be working with Wyuna, GreenPoint and the Goodman Group in demonstrating the potential of negative emissions activities. The fund will show how primary producers can tap into the growing demand for carbon credits as investors and businesses pursue increasingly ambitious sustainability goals.

“Co-locating sustainable livestock production with high integrity carbon projects creates operational and environmental synergies. The creation of an ACCU revenue stream can strengthen on-farm financial resilience while also delivering broader biodiversity and sustainability co-benefits for farming communities.”

Wyuna co-founder and CEO Steve Green said: “The fund represents an incredible opportunity to support land regeneration, sustainable food production, and land-based solutions to remove carbon from the atmosphere by bringing together a dedicated team of farmers, investors and sustainability experts.”

The CEFC most recently committed A$75 million to Macquarie Asset Management’s open-end fund that owns and operates Paraway Pastoral Company.

The institutional investor’s head of natural capital, Heechung Sung, spoke at the Agri Investor Australia Forum in Melbourne this month. She said the CEFC would look to be “more aggressive” in its approach to deploying capital and working with fund managers: “We’re very ambitious. I won’t tell you my strategy but it’s a lot of money.”