Manulife Buys 89,800 Acres of Maine Timberland in Somerset County.
Posted on 08/20/2021
Hancock Natural Resource Group is a Manulife Investment Management company. Hancock Natural Resource Group purchased 89,800 acres of timberland in the U.S. state of Maine in Somerset County. The purchased was made on behalf of John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A), and its parent, Manulife. The amount of carbon a forest can store is directly proportional to the volume of timber in that forest.
Manulife is classifying the investment as using the timberlands to “store carbon.” Manulife reserves the option to sell the carbon credits as offsets or use the carbon removals as insets. The acquired property is a contiguous block of timberlands located in Somerset County, Maine along the border of the province of Quebec, Canada. Some trees on the land include spruce-fir and northern hardwood tree species. The parcel comprises about 3% of the county’s geographic area that is known as the Blueback Region.
In March 2021, Manulife acquired 12,874 hectares of eucalyptus plantations in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Manulife made the investment through its affiliate Sempre Verde Florestas e Agricultura Ltda. The seller was APEI Plantio de Floresta Exotica S.A. (APEI), a subsidiary of AMATA.