Is Asia the next timberlands investment Sizzle Region?
While North American timberland investment action has climbed substantially over the last decade, and investment in a small number of overseas countries (mostly in Oceania and Latin America) has also accelerated, timberlands investment in Asia has not been nearly so active. There have been good reasons for this, including a lack of land tenure security, some dubious political governance, and a lack of history in growing/marketing many tropical plantation species. However, the last 3-5 years has seen the entry of a number of “mainstream” timberlands trade and funds investors into the Asian timberlands arena. A US TIMO has recently initiated investment in Malaysian plantations; and an Australian- based funds manager linked with Al Gore has invested in an environmental project in Malaysia. Japan’s Oji Paper is developing plantations in Laos and a USA-Israeli company is investing in large scale plantations in Cambodia. A number of major companies have invested in Indonesian timberlands. So
