PF Olsen and Forest360 have merged to form Stand Forestry Group, now offering to fund forestry establishment costs for landowners entering the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in exchange for a share of future cash flows.

Stand Forestry Group chief executive Dan Gaddum says the offering is where New Zealand landowners will see the most from Stand.

“We’ve launched a joint venture forest product, which is essentially providing a pathway for landowners to get into the ETS,” he says.

“We’ll fund all the costs involved with those joint ventures, and there’s a 50/50 share of the cash flows at the back end of it.”

Terms can be adjusted depending on the site.

The merger, backed by Adamantem Capital and cornerstone investor Quayside Holdings, brings 480,000ha under management across Australia and New Zealand, with a team of more than 200 people.

“The costs of business are increasing with everything getting more and more expensive, so just having the scale made a lot of sense.”

He says they are a long way ahead of where they thought they would be three months into the merger. Although Australia is dominated by significant forest owners and fund managers, New Zealand has thousands of clients spread from Kaitāia to Bluff, marking two distinct markets.

He says the revenue opportunity goes beyond carbon credits.

“We firmly believe that there’s an opportunity in the carbon and in addition to carbon, the natural capital space.

“If anyone’s keeping an eye on the amount of money that’s flowing around in the natural capital game, that is an increasingly exciting revenue play.”

Stand is not advocating plant-and-leave carbon forestry.

“This is managed forestry, and it can be a range of different species, not just radiata.

“There’s a range of different alternative species out there, redwoods, Douglas fir, attenuata, lots of different things.

“It [Stand] represents a stand of trees, so it has that connection to what we’re all about with forestry.

“It is a name that can be used in a number of different ways as a noun and a verb, and standing up for things and principles, which is how the business wants to roll.”

He says the sector is often misunderstood.

“People think that it’s all carbon forestry – it’s not that.

“We want to work in with the sector and live in harmony.”

CountryWide CONNECT with Andy Thompson & Sarah Perriam-Lampp is our daily rural show livestreamed from 11am-1pm. Visit country-wide.co.nz on how to watch/listen or download the CountryWide CONNECT mobile app, available on Apple iOS and Android.