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Natural Capital
The Agri Investor Australia Forum, held last week, saw constant discussion of natural capital’s potential – but the term was less familiar to international investors.
New Harvest, chaired by industry veteran Don Mackay, is aiming to hold a first close of A$150m before the end of 2022.
New Agriculture’s Bruce King and New Forests’ Mark Rogers discuss the new division’s strategy, what investors want from the asset class, and the potential blend of farmland and forestry into a single investment product.
QIC, New Forests and Macquarie Asset Management are taking different approaches to the nascent asset class, but there are common themes.
New Agriculture will be led by Bruce King, who joined the firm in 2022, and will manage the Lawson Grains portfolio it acquired in 2021.
The pair have partnered to launch a natural capital asset manager that will invest in natural climate solutions in Southeast Asia.
The firm has collaborated with Conservation International, a global non-profit, to form Akaria Natural Capital.
Local partnerships are hugely important when identifying new assets in the natural resources space, allowing investors to better prioritize both their ESG goals and financial returns, says PSP Investments’ Marc Drouin.
Enhancing natural capital is a key step to developing resilient farmland and forest assets, say Cristina Hastings Newsome and Skye Macpherson of Nuveen Natural Capital.
A product of the Environment Act 2021, biodiversity net gain credits are the latest in a line of natural capital benefits to which governments have attached a monetary value.