Forests are one of the most important elements of nature. And Manulife is making a new bet on turning them into carbon credits.
What’s happening:
- Manulife Investment Management has raised $224.5M USD for their new Forest Climate Fund which is focused on producing carbon credits through natural carbon sequestration
- The mission of the fund is to provide new institutional access to sustainably managed forest projects that are capable of combating climate change and generating carbon credits
Why it matters:
- Manulife is the world’s largest manager of natural capital and is widely seen as a leader in investing in forestry projects
- Using forestlands for carbon capture instead of timber harvesting is a sustainable way to both generate carbon credits and naturally combat climate change
By the numbers:
- Manulife manages $15B USD in capital that is directly involved in agriculture or timberland
- 70% of the new Forest Climate Fund will be allocated to carbon projects
- Forestry projects currently account for approximately 30% of total voluntary carbon credits that are issued
- Manulife has a stake in forestry projects across Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and other countries that spans approximately 5.5M acres of timberland
