Yesterday Sumitomo Forestry Co. announced that it has formed a forestry fund together with nine other Japanese companies focsued on decarbonization throuhg forest management.
The fund has accumulated a total of $420 million (60 billion yen) from the 10 companies, including Sumitomo Forestry, oil refiner Eneos Corp. and Osaka Gas Co.
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Sumitomo Forestry shared that the project will generate carbon credits for roughly 1 million tons of CO2 equivalents every year by enhancing CO2 absorption capacity through afforestation.
The fund can “not only create economic value through timber trading but also contribute to the global environment through forest preservation and expansion and to helping investors offset their carbon emissions,” Sumitomo Forestry President Toshiro Mitsuyoshi told a press conference.
The fund will does have a preset operation lifecycle and will run for 15 years with proceeds to be distributed proportionally to each participating company.
Despite recent criticism forest management projects have largely retained their standing as part of the solution of reducing global CO2 emissions and this is another large-scale project that confirms the intention of corporations to continue investing and developing them.
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