This event is now over. Digital Proceedings can be ordered here.
Join us for North America's best attended annual event on forestland investing, the World Forestry Center’s Who Will Own the Forest? conference series: September 20-22, 2010 in Portland, Oregon.
Although few outside of the forestry and investment fields are aware of it, there has been a huge shift in private industrial forest ownership in the United States that has ramifications not only for those employed in the forest sector but also for many of us who still have retirement portfolios.
Over the last 25 years, most of the publicly held, integrated forest products companies in the U.S. have either sold or divested their forestlands to reduce debt, increase cash flow, and refocus on core manufacturing. At the same time, institutional investors such as pension funds and university endowments were looking for ways to diversify their investment portfolios outside of the bond and equities markets. Today, most of these divested forestlands are held either by Timber Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs) or Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS), on behalf of large institutional investors.
Some of the early investors in this emerging asset class reaped double digit gains, thus fueling a surge of interest in forestland. Attracted to its physical asset profile, and reduced volatility relative to the equity market, institutional investors from within the U.S. and Europe have since been snapping up forestlands as part of their portfolios. It is estimated that institutions now own more than 25 million acres of U.S. forests, worth more than US$30 billion.
Initially timberland sales were only in the U.S., especially in the south and parts of the west, but by the 1990s investors were starting to seek cheaper timberlands and faster growing species overseas, in places such as New Zealand and Chile. Today institutional investors own forests as far away as Mozambique and Cambodia, although the bulk of investments remain within the U.S.
Two decades since the shift in forestland ownership began, the impacts on forestry, conservation policy, and retirement portfolios remain an issue of keen debate. Given that equities sank so far so suddenly, are forestlands a less risky alternative to hedge against inflation and volatility, or are land prices still too high to warrant entry into this unique asset class? More simply—is forestland still a good investment? These and other questions will be analyzed and debated at this year’s “Who Will Own the Forest?” conference to be held at the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon on September 20-22.
Organized by the non-profit World Forest Institute at WFC, the “Who Will Own the Forest?” conference, brings the forestry, investment, legal, appraisal, and land management and conservation communities together to discuss the key issues facing this sector. Sessions will include discussions on the economy, forestland valuations, investing overseas, regulatory, tax and lending drivers, and emerging values such as carbon, biomass, and environmental credits. The conference has been approved for continuing education credits for appraisers, attorneys, foresters, and CPAs. Special discounts offered to pension, endowments and foundations.
The World Forestry Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to educate and inform people about the world's forests and trees, and environmental sustainability. The Center owns and operates the Discovery Museum located in Portland's Washington Park, Magness Memorial Tree Farm demonstration forest located near Wilsonville, and the World Forest Institute, an international fellowship program.
Sponsors:
Brookfield Asset Management
The Campbell Group
Cascade Hardwood
Equator / TTG Brasil
Fidelity National Title Insurance Company
First American Financial Corporation
Forest Investment Associates
The Forestland Group
Global Forest Partners
Green Diamond Resource Company
GreenWood Resources
Hancock Timber Resource Group
Harry A. Merlo Foundation
International Forestry Consultants
John Hancock Bond and Corporate Finance Group
The Lyme Timber Company
MetLife Timberland Finance Group
Miller Nash
Molpus Woodlands Group
Morris, Manning & Martin
Moss Adams
NW Farm Credit Services
Prudential Agricultural Investments
Realty Marketing/Northwest
Resource Management Service
Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt
Smith, Gambrell & Russell
Starker Forests
Stoel Rives
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan
TerraSource Valuation
Timberland Investment Resources
Timber Mart-South
US Bank
Verrill Dana
In cooperation with the University of Georgia's Center for Forest Business
Continuing Education Credits:
Foresters:
12.0 CFE Contact Hours, Category 1 for Society of American Foresters. Please locate sign-in sheet and obtain certificate of attendance at end of event.
12.0 CPE General Review Hours for Oregon Certified Public Accountants. Please locate sign-in sheet and obtain certificate of attendance at end of event. Check with your state rules to determine eligibility.
12.0 general credits for Oregon State Bar. Please locate sign-in sheet and submit bar numbers at end of event.
Appraisers:
12.0 hours of continuing education credits for Oregon Appraiser Certification and Licensure.
12.0 hours of continuing education credits for WA State Real Estate Appraisers Department of Licensing.