Timber

The firm will invest growth capital in companies supporting emissions avoidance in agriculture and emissions sequestration via natural assets.

Limited awareness of what is meant by natural capital and a fluid carbon credits regulatory landscape are among the difficulties in steering money towards the fledgling strategy, says Olly Hughes of Gresham House.

New Forests Asia’s Tropical Asia Forest Fund II had raised $120m against a $300m target prior to the commitments.

Asset managers New Forests, Gresham House, Dasos Capital and Rayonier are among 10 firms that have founded the ISFC to help shape frameworks and policies affecting the nascent natural capital asset class.

Eastwood Forests’ first fundraise has shown how powerful the carbon story around timberland investments has become, including with Japanese LPs.

The 15-year closed-end fund has been seeded with capital from 10 Japanese companies including Sumitomo Forestry, Japan Post Holdings, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

Perella Weinberg Partners has been appointed to find a US investor to take a 25% stake in NZ Rural Land Company’s existing portfolio.

Wendy Norris helped lead the Future Fund’s investment in OneFortyOne in 2012 in a previous role as head of infrastructure and timberland.

Eva Warigia has joined New Forests from the East Africa Private Equity & Venture Capital Asasociation to become associate director, investor relations, Africa, along with four other appointments.

New Forests has become one of the world’s largest timberland asset managers in less than 20 years under founder David Brand, who discusses the development of forestry, agri and the firm’s future alongside new CEO Mark Rogers.