Timberland Investment Group, a division of Brazilian bank BTG Pactual, closed its inaugural Latin America timberland fund with $860 million in 2015. The latest fund, launched in 2020, has raised $1.24 billion to invest in mature timberland assets in Chile, Uruguay and Brazil.
Latin America, said BTG’s Gerrity Lansing, has “unique, secular attributes including ideal growing conditions and strong domestic markets for many forest products.”
The New York-headquartered investment firm formed a partnership with The Nature Conservancy in 2021 to bridge the gap between demand from institutional investors for climate-smart forestry investments and the supply of institutional-scale opportunities.
The new fund has invested in five timberland assets that TIG will “sustainably manage over the long term,” said BTG’s Matheus Moura. Timberland Investment Group manages nearly three million acres of timberland in the US and Latin America.
Conservation finance
TIG was tapped by Apple’s Restore Fund to focus on nature-based carbon removal to restore degraded pasturelands in South America. That fund, which also partners with Symbiosis and Arbaro Advisors, has raised more than $280 million. With Conservation International, TIG is working on a $1 billion, five-year investment strategy for forest protection and restoration in Latin America.
