December 13, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

In February 2022, Nuveen announced the formation of Nuveen Natural Capital as part of a wider reorganization to enhance its Real Assets platform by creating a more streamlined channel for investors looking for natural resources investments. 

Only a matter of months later came the launch of the Nuveen Global Timberland strategy – developed to give investors targeted exposure to sustainable timberland investment opportunities in core geographies including the U.S., Chile, Uruguay, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. 

There is a broadly embraced goal amongst global investors to see their portfolios shift to net zero by 2050, and natural climate solutions are the lowest-cost scalable channel through which to achieve this, according to the World Resources Institute, which noted that such solutions can provide as much as 30 percent of the emissions reductions required by 2030. 

Likewise, the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy forecasts that global demand for timber will increase by as much as 200 percent by 2050 as a result of growing populations and per capita income levels – making timber a compelling asset class. 

Further, all of these factors create a landscape in which Nuveen Natural Capital’s Global Timber strategy is positioned as a provider of natural climate solutions to reduce carbon emissions by producing more timber on less land, reducing emissions through efficient operating practices, and by sequestering carbon in soil and trees.

Indeed, for Nuveen Natural Capital and its clients, a fund of this nature will be able to generate returns through a variety of channels, whether timber sales, carbon offset markets, conservation easements, or land appreciation.

In November of this year, Martin Davies, head of Nuveen Natural Capital, noted, “In the current economic environment, real asset characteristics make timberland an attractive inflation hedge, with downside risk mitigation against different economic cycles and stable income. This launch is our latest step in bolstering our first-class real assets offering for clients, at a time when global investor demand is growing rapidly.”

Now, on behalf of clients invested in Nuveen’s flagship Global Timberland strategy, Nuveen Natural Capital announced the acquisition of 47,751 acres of timberland in Washington and Oregon, from the Green Crow Company for an undisclosed amount.

This deal marks the first portfolio acquisition for the fund, which had been initially seeded with 60,500 acres of pine timberland in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic – assets previously held and proffered by TIAA.

It also marks the fund’s first acquisition in the Pacific Northwest region, representing an opportunity for immediate, large-scale capital deployment while also offering both market and geographical diversification.

“We are incredibly pleased and excited to have sourced such a high-quality, scaled timberland asset in an off-market transaction,” said Chris Lipton, head of timberland investments, Nuveen Natural Capital. “It clearly demonstrates our depth of relationships in the timberland market and ability to deploy capital into sought after investment geographies.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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