Fund manager New Forests launched its Global Landscape Opportunities (GLO) strategy in June, the company’s first global natural capital offering for institutional investment across forestry, agriculture, and complementary markets, including carbon and biodiversity.

While New Forests is based in Sydney, Australia, the GLO fund will be established in Luxembourg. The new strategy brings together New Forests’ two decades of experience investing across regional markets into a single, globally integrated portfolio, targeting opportunities across North America, Europe, Australia-New Zealand, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa.

The initiative responds to growing investor demand for institutional-grade, global allocations to natural capital, as capital markets increasingly recognise the role of land-based assets in delivering inflation resilience, diversification, and the potential for attractive long-term real returns, alongside environmental outcomes.

“The launch of our Global Landscape Opportunities strategy marks a significant step in the evolution of New Forests as a global natural capital investment manager,” Mark Rogers, Chief Executive Officer, New Forests, says.

“We are seeing strong investor demand for scalable, institutional strategies that provide diversified exposure to natural capital. This strategy responds directly to that need by bringing together our global platform, investment expertise, and track record into a single offering.

“Natural capital is increasingly recognised as a core component of resilient portfolios, offering the potential for long-term returns while supporting critical outcomes such as climate stability, biodiversity and sustainable land use”.

The GLO strategy will invest across a broad spectrum of natural capital assets, including sustainable forestry assets, agricultural land and food production systems, carbon and climate-related investments, and biodiversity and ecosystem markets.

“Historically, many investors have accessed natural capital through regional allocations, but not all institutions have the scale, resources or expertise to build and manage global portfolios themselves”, David Shelton, New Forests’ Global Head of Investments, explains.

“Building on New Forests’ regional return performance, this strategy allows investors to access a diversified global portfolio where we actively allocate capital across regions, sectors and markets to optimise outcomes”, he says.

Shelton continues, “Natural capital offers a compelling investment proposition, with characteristics such as attractive long-duration return profiles, inflation hedging, and low correlation to traditional asset classes. It also provides exposure to fundamental global demand for food, fibre, renewable energy and ecosystem services”.

The proposed asset allocation will be:

• United States, Canada, Europe, UK, Australia, and New Zealand – 60% to 80% of the portfolio
• Developed Latin America (Brazil, Uruguay and Chile) – up to 30% of the portfolio
• Southeast Asia, other Latin America regions, and Africa – up to 20% of the portfolio

The target audience for GLO is institutional investors, including pension funds, insurance companies, family offices, endowments and foundations.