The market for forest-carbon offsets has boomed in recent years. Companies have promised investors that they will eventually operate without adding emissions to the atmosphere, setting so-called net-zero targets, but have had trouble finding ways to make up for emissions beyond paying timberland owners to log less often and leave trees standing and absorbing carbon.
Manulife Investment Management, previously known as Hancock Timber Resource Group, oversees more than 5 million acres in the Americas and Oceania on behalf of big investors. It's the world's largest so-called timberland investment management organization, which are like buyout firms for forests. It began late last year to it raise a fund specifically for investors who wanted to bet on carbon offset markets.