Start your natural capital investment journey with forests

Reach your forest investment goals

Amidst the global climate and nature agenda, a rise in standards for sustainable investment, and increasing shareholder ESG interests, the opportunity for forest investment has never been greater.

The ForestLink serves investors, investment managers and the businesses they invest into to integrate ESG and impact into profitable Forestry and land-use investment strategies.

I help you to design a forest investment strategy that not only sets your organization apart from your peers but sets your capital on the path to success.

Shauna Matkovich, Founding Director of The ForestLink

You can work with The ForestLink in four ways:

Forest Investments

The Concept Brief

Validate your forest investment concept in 90 minutes

Does your organization have a forest investment strategy conceptualized, but you’re not sure if you’ve addressed all the key elements? Are you concerned that the assumptions underpinning your strategy are incorrect? Do you have commercial return requirements that you aren’t sure are consistent with your objectives for climate, biodiversity, and society? 

The ForestLink - Connecting forests, sustainability, finance and business

The Concept Brief is a 90-minute call dedicated to unpacking your investment strategy idea and objectives. The outcome is an action plan that focuses on the gaps and incongruencies in your investment strategy and explains how to address them.

EUR 2,500

The Strategy Audit

Save months on your forest investment strategy launch

Your organization’s forest investment strategy is coming together. You may have an internal investment thesis, pitch deck, risk analysis, impact assessment, or similar. But you’re inexperienced in forest investment. You would like a set of eyes on your strategy that has a background both in forestry and forest investment.

The ForestLink - Connecting forests, sustainability, finance and business

The Strategy Audit is a deep dive into your organization’s investment strategy, with a thorough analysis of your strategy documentation and an interview with the strategy’s investment team or lead person. From within a week of commencing the Audit, you get an assessment of your strategy with actionable insights, and resources so that you can finalize and launch your investment strategy in a fraction of the time and without all the trial and error of doing it all on your own.

PRICING VARIES

Forest Investments
Forest Investments

The Strategy Build

From concept to forest investment strategy launch in less than a month

Your organization would like to roll out a forest investment strategy, but you lack the expertise and time to do this effectively in-house. Though you want to ensure your strategy aligns with your organization’s investment philosophy, you are not interested in the long process of learning by doing and would rather have an expert in both forestry and forest investment take the lead on its development.

The ForestLink - Connecting forests, sustainability, finance and business

In as little as 4 weeks, The Strategy Build integrates your objectives, investment philosophy, and investment criteria into a customized forest investment strategy.   The outcome is a detailed Investment Thesis that you can use for internal discussions, fundraising and pipeline development with prospective investees, as well as a workshop delivered at your premises to present the strategy and work through any questions.

PRICING VARIES

The Timberland Upgrade

Transform your TIMO to meet the sustainability needs of today’s investors

You are an experienced Timberland Investment Manager and are looking to transform your TIMO and its investment strategies from the traditional timber-optimization model to one that realizes the whole value of the forest. Production forestry is still paramount to your investment thesis, but you see the value in increasing your sustainability credentials.

The ForestLink - Connecting forests, sustainability, finance and business

The Timberland Upgrade is a stepwise engagement that starts with an assessment of your current timberland and sustainability approach together with your ESG and impact goals. The outcome of the first phase is an ESG and Impact integration roadmap, describing the concrete actions needed to credibly upgrade your Timberland model to create intentional and additional biodiversity, climate, and social benefits, all while building value and reducing risk. You can engage The ForestLink to execute the remainder of the Upgrade, or take the roadmap and run with it yourself.

PRICING VARIES

Forest Investment Strategy 101
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Shauna Matkovich was an invaluable advisor to our research effort ...

… covering the emerging landscape of impact forestry real asset funds. She adeptly helped us identify key fund attributes, market trends, and impact strategies to watch, weaving insights into a narrative relevant to our family office membership base. We’re grateful for her professionalism, expertise, and collaborative spirit.

Gabriela Leslie, CREO

Shauna gives big picture advice looking at a situation holistically ...

… rather than getting over focused on one point or detail. She also provides a good balance between an international perspective while also understanding and reflecting on local perspectives and needs.

Alan Knight, Drax

Shauna has been a great support in drafting and developing the Fund's sustainability strategy ...

… She has been leading group meetings, bringing a sustainability perspective to various workstreams. She has a professional approach that combines ESG and impact themes with her commercial mindset.

Erik Anderzen, International Woodland Company

Shauna has the ability to distil complex technical concepts into actionable strategies ...

… her engagement has proven instrumental in providing invaluable insights into how we look at quality of carbon credits for afforestation, reforestation and revegetation (ARR) opportunities. Her contributions have not only elevated our decision-making processes, but have also added a distinct strategic advantage to our company.

Maria Filmanovic, Abatable

Because you want a profitable and impactful forest investment strategy – you need long-lasting value creation, ESG risk reduction, and co-benefit generation to be part of every decision without slowing you down.

Value Creation

Value Creation

Profitable strategies from valuing the whole forest

Forests have many more values than traditional forest products alone (though those are critical)! The economy is changing, and the traditional timberland investment model is becoming outdated. The forest investment strategies I design focus on how to improve returns from integrating the full value of the forest – timber, climate, nature, water/soil, agriculture. Investors and buyers value these – your investment strategy should too!

Risk Reduction

Risk Reduction

Turn investment risks into opportunities

Risks must be identified early in the investment process and be avoided or mitigated through strong risk management practices. My experience in forest management, investment management and ESG gives you confidence that no ESG or business risk goes un-detected, and un-mitigated. I find the opportunity in risk, and design strategies that transform it into impact and value.

Co-benefits

Co-Benefits

Generate returns on climate, nature and society

Impact generation doesn’t need to compromise financial returns. From new ecosystem services markets to sourcing niche investors and buyers, to partnering with complementary organizations and more – My impact toolbox ensures that your forest investment strategy creates measurable improvements that will help and not harm your bottom line.

Book a consult
to discuss your needs

Recent Resources & Insights

Think of Exit First 

Think of Exit First 

Why Emerging Market Forest Investment Strategies Require a Detailed Exit Strategy before Committing your First $  Register your interest in the Theory of Change Webinar  Forest assets are infamously illiquid. This is less of an issue in core timberland...