The Good for the Trees
At a time of economic unrest and climatic worries, Director of Global Forestry Investments Andrew Skeene tells Waterfront exactly why everyone should go green and invest in trees
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n the current financial climate, finding a reliable investment is like striking gold. However, there is one commodity which has quietly outsold gold and stocks and
shares for over 30 years – this unassumingly precious material is timber. “Many people are fed up of investing in
stocks and shares because the market goes up and down. We say trees just grow – so we encourage people to look at investing their money wisely in something more ethical, which will make them feel better about their money and get a secure and residual income.” Tis expert advice comes courtesy of Director of Global Forestry Investments, Andrew Skeene who having only been involved in the industry for around four years has already seen the great benefits of putting his money into timber. Having made a name for himself in the
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property market, Skeene and business partner Omari Bowers scoured the world for the next big investment as the market began to crumble. He recalls, “We began talking about the next big project we should invest our money into and investigated a lot of the hedge funds who were supporting the possession market. Te
hedge funds who were supporting a lot of the bridging companies at the time shifted their funds and stopped lending – so we investigated what they were investing in – which turned out to be a great deal of land in Africa and South America – purely for agricultural and forestry use. We wanted to know, how we could get involved in that industry at that time.” Following more research the two realised
Brazil was an investment hotspot, and part of the emerging market at the time alongside Russia, India and China. So, with the original intention of going out there to buy land for property, they soon discovered the strength of timber as a commodity and began to purchase the land for use in the forestry market instead. He continues, “We bought one piece of land
before selling it on and made a small profit. Te next step was to ask how we can make this
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