In a move that merges sustainable finance with industrial-scale environmental stewardship, Sydney-based natural capital investment manager New Forests has partnered with Japan’s Oji Holdings Corporation, one of the world’s largest pulp and paper producers, to establish the Future Forest Innovations Fund.

With an initial commitment of US$300 million ( US$297 million from Oji and US$3 million from New Forests ), the fund aims to acquire and manage 70,000 hectares of plantation forests across Southeast Asia, North and Latin America, and Africa.

According to New Forests, a large percentage ( 40-60% ) of the total fund could be invested in forestry assets in Southeast Asia.

The fund has been structured as a variable capital company ( VCC ) based in Singapore, a flexible, fund-friendly vehicle increasingly favoured for cross-border sustainability investments.

Designed with open-ended features, the Future Forest Innovations Fund reflects a growing appetite among corporates for long-term, nature-positive asset classes.

The partnership signals an alignment between traditional manufacturing and ecological impact investing. Oji Holdings, which already manages 635,000 hectares of plantation forests worldwide, is leveraging this initiative to meet its 2030 net sequestration goal of 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, integrating climate action into its global forest footprint.

"By investing in sustainable forest plantations in four major regions of the world, we will be assisting Oji to achieve their 2030 mission of growing their sustainable forestry assets and reducing overall carbon emissions,” says New Forests chief executive officer Mark Rogers.

The deal capitalizes on New Forests’ two decades of experience in managing over 4.2 million hectares of nature-based assets across five continents, and its proprietary expertise in genetics, geo-spatial analytics, and climate-aligned forestry operations.

The launch also comes amid heightened scrutiny of nature-related risk disclosures, with frameworks like the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures ( TNFD ) gaining traction across Asia.