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

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