Aviva, CEFC, Gresham House partner for $142m Australian forestry investment

Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation has partnered with the UK’s Aviva Investors and Gresham House in a natural capital co-investment. The $142m project, based in Australia’s Tasmania is expected to produce 5 MT of timber alongside 3.2m Australian carbon credits.

NZI Transition and Climate Investment Conference | 22 October | London | Register here

The investment will establish the Tasmania Natural Asset Trust – a platform managed by Gresham House. The project combines softwood plantations and large-scale conservation and restoration.

Dorian van Raalte, associate director for forestry and natural capital at Gresham House says the TNAT offers a new model for sustainable land management in Tasmania. “By combining climate-positive forestry with restoration of high-value habitats, we aim to deliver durable natural capital outcomes while supporting regional jobs and skills”, he said.

The project’s Radiata Pine trees will be processed by locally based sawmills. In a statement, Gresham House said this is expected to ‘alleviate some of Tasmania’s wood supply pressures and help divert harvesting away from native forests’. The supply of timber is expected to address the shortfall in Australia’s construction market.

“This is an important project in Tasmania with the potential to create real economic benefits for the region and repair a degraded area of land through considered and sensitive afforestation”, commented Greta Talbot-Jones, Aviva Investors’ director of natural capital and co-portfolio manager of the Carbon Removal Fund.

CEFC’s head of natural capital Heechung Sung praised the project’s return potential. “By utilising high-integrity plantation forestry and environmental plantings Australian carbon credit unit methods, the economics support the establishment of this new large scale investment opportunity, generating commercial returns”, she said.

Longview Networks: Institutional Investment Conferences and Summits