Sumitomo Forestry is expanding forest interests in the United States, following a ¥60 billion (or AUD 630 million) investment in US forestry.
Announced in January 2023, Sumitomo Forestry – one of the world’s largest forest companies – established Eastwood Forests, LLC, focused on selling timber and forest carbon assets in the north american market.
Now, the Japanese Times reports that Sumitomo Forestry has attracted interest from nine Japanese companies who have invested in the fund.
The companies include Eneos Corp., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Osaka Gas Co.
The investment was made as part of the company’s “Mission TREEING 2030” initiative – and the fund plans to purchase 130,000 hectares of US forest assets by 2027.
The investment will generate 1 million tons of annual carbon credits equivalent to 1 million tons of C02 through afforestation and thinning.
What is Mission TREEING 2030?
“Mission TREEING 2030” is Sumitomo Forestry’s long-term vision to use forestry to achieve total decarbonisation by 2030. Announced in February 2022, Sumitomo Forestry is expanding its investment in global forest assets – with Eastwood Forests the first project funded under the initiative.
As reported by Wood Central, Sumitomo Forestry Group is one of a growing number of forestry businesses taking advantage of the push to use carbon credits to meet climate targets.
Sumitomo Forestry seeks to expand forest interests in North America, Asia and Oceania.
As part of Mission Treeing 2030, it aims to increase its forest footprint by 500,000 hectares and increase assets under management to 100 billion yen by 2030.
NeXT FOREST: How Sumitomo Forestry generates global carbon credits
In February 2023, Sumitomo Forestry launched NeXT FOREST – a joint tropical peatland management project with IHI Corporation in Indonesia.
Now, Sumitomo is using satellites and AI to monitor peatland degradation in real-time.
The project uses a high-precision, high-density weather observation technology and network system coupled with on-ground measurement data to improve the sustainable management of rare peatland forests.
According to Sumitomo Forestry, which has managed 145,000 hectares of peatland for over a decade, “global demand for agriculture is now a major driver of peatland deforestation.”
Whilst steps like the EU Deforestation Regulation play an important role in preventing deforested products from entering European markets, the NeXT FOREST initiative is instrumental in preventing deforestation from occurring in the first place.
According to Sumitomo Forestry, “These technologies help create high-quality carbon credits by adding not just the value of climate actions to absorb and store CO2, but also the value of natural capital such as preserving biodiversity and water cycle conservation and contributing to local communities.”
