Originally published: 8 October 2024 | Updated: 4 November 2026
The world’s leading forestry and agricultural investment managers are doing more than acquiring forests and farms. Their strategies increasingly combine food and timber production with carbon projects, conservation, agricultural infrastructure and land restoration. This broader approach is reshaping how institutional investors assess rural land value.
Manulife Investment Management and Nuveen Natural Capital remain prominent global leaders, while New Forests, Resource Management Service and Global Forest Partners are substantial forestry specialists. Roc Partners represents a different investment model, combining agricultural real assets with operating food businesses. However, these managers should not be treated as a simple league table: their investment mandates, reporting dates, currencies and asset-valuation methods differ.
Leading managers at a glance
The following is a selection of major managers, rather than an exhaustive ranking. Assets under management (AUM) refers to the investments managed, not the management company’s market value.
Manulife Investment Management
Approximately 6 million acres across timberland and agriculture, reported at 31 December 2025. Its natural-capital leadership claim cites IPE’s January 2026 research.
Global timberland and farmland investment and management.
Nuveen Natural Capital
US$14 billion at 31 December 2025, comprising US$12.1 billion in farmland and US$1.9 billion in timberland.
Farmland, timberland and ecological restoration.
New Forests
A$10.6 billion, equivalent to approximately US$7.3 billion, across 5.7 million hectares at 31 March 2026.
Forestry, conservation and natural-capital strategies.
Resource Management Service, LLC — RMS
US$5.8 billion and approximately 2.2 million acres, according to its current website and August 2026 announcement.
Institutional timberland investment and forest management.
Global Forest Partners — GFP
US$3.4 billion in forestry and related assets, according to its website; the reporting date is unclear.
Institutional forestry investment.
Roc Partners
A$1.8 billion in food and agriculture AUM at 31 December 2025.
Operating food businesses, agricultural infrastructure and carbon-abatement projects.
Investment manager
Reported scale
Main investment focus
Manulife: a global natural-capital leader
Manulife’s current disclosures describe a timberland and agriculture platform managing approximately 6 million acres. Its claim to be the world’s largest natural-capital investment manager is based on IPE research published in January 2026, covering forestry and farmland AUM reported by participating firms for dates ranging from December 2024 to December 2025. That qualification matters: it is a survey-based comparison, not a live measurement of every manager worldwide.
Its agriculture strategy extends beyond ownership of bare land. The portfolio includes annual and permanent crops, alongside farmland with integrated processing operations. Investors can therefore gain exposure to both agricultural property and parts of the production chain.
Nuveen: particularly significant in global farmland
Nuveen Natural Capital reports US$14 billion in managed assets across approximately 2.6 million acres and more than 580 properties in 11 countries. Farmland accounts for most of that value: US$12.1 billion, compared with US$1.9 billion in timberland, at the end of 2025.
Nuveen ranks as the world’s largest farmland manager in Pensions & Investments rankings, based on participating managers’ AUM as of 30 June 2025. This helps explain an apparent contradiction: one firm can lead in combined natural capital while another leads specifically in farmland.
Its activities also demonstrate how land investment is broadening. Nuveen’s 2026 reporting describes eight carbon projects across the United States, South America, and Australia, covering approximately 179,000 acres. Project types include reforestation, improved forest management, avoided deforestation, and biochar.
New Forests: forestry and conservation at scale as of March 2026
New Forests reports A$10.6 billion in AUM across approximately 5.7 million hectares. Its portfolio includes sustainable timber plantations, conservation areas, carbon and conservation-finance projects, agriculture, timber processing and infrastructure.
Its relevance lies in this combination of commercial production and environmental investment. However, hectares managed should not be confused with financial scale: a large conservation estate and an intensively managed plantation can have very different values per hectare.
RMS and GFP: specialist forestry managers
RMS reports approximately 2.2 million acres of forests valued at US$5.8 billion—an updated valuation compared with the US$4.8 billion quoted in the original article. In August 2026, it announced entry into the US Pacific Northwest through an exchange involving approximately 57,000 acres in Texas and Alabama for approximately 36,000 acres in coastal Washington. This illustrates how managers can reshape regional exposure without simply expanding their landholdings.
Global Forest Partners reports US$3.4 billion in forestry and related assets. It also reports deploying US$4.2 billion into forestry investments over time and returning US$5.9 billion through operations and sales. These cumulative figures describe investment activity; they are not annual returns or fund-level performance measures.
Roc Partners: investing beyond farmland
Roc Partners reports A$1.8 billion in food and agriculture AUM as of December 2025. Its strategy combines operational food assets, agricultural infrastructure and carbon-abatement projects, rather than focusing solely on farmland ownership.
Portfolio examples include egg producer Pace Farm, glasshouse operator Flavorite, Australia’s Oyster Coast, and wagyu producer Stone Axe. These investments show how agricultural exposure can include processing, production systems, distribution and branded products—not just land appreciation or farm rent.
What has changed since 2024?
Land is increasingly assessed for several sources of value
Timber and agricultural production remain central, but managers are also examining carbon income, restoration and other environmental services. Manulife’s 2026 outlook highlights remote sensing, forest analytics, and carbon-monitoring technology as tools to improve management and develop additional revenue opportunities.
The important distinction is between potential and established cash flow. Nuveen, for example, reports both carbon credits already sold and credits expected from projects over future years. These are at different stages of commercial delivery and should not be valued as if they were identical.
Operational capability matters alongside ownership
Roc’s emphasis on operating businesses and infrastructure, and Manulife’s inclusion of integrated processing, show why management quality matters. Two investments described as “agriculture” may have very different exposure to labor, production costs, commodity prices, and business execution.
Size does not establish investment performance
The original article’s claim of a 15.45% median forestry-fund IRR in 2022 should not be carried forward without the underlying dataset and methodology. It does not establish a current return expectation.
Likewise, large AUM does not guarantee attractive returns. Nuveen explicitly warns that agricultural investments can be illiquid and less transparent than traditional assets, with exposure to economic conditions, environmental risks, insurance costs, and leasing risks.
Where do ADM, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO and Louis Dreyfus fit?
The original article grouped major commodity traders with investment managers. They belong in a separate discussion: managing investment portfolios differs from buying, storing, processing, and distributing agricultural commodities.
A major development is Bunge’s completion of its acquisition of Viterra on 2 July 2025, expanding its global agribusiness network. The combined business operates across grain origination, storage, distribution, oilseed processing and refining.
The original claim that the named traders control “70–90%” of global commercial grain trade should be omitted unless supported by a current source defining the commodities, markets and measurement period involved.
What this means for South American land investment
South America is already part of institutional natural-capital investing, rather than merely a future opportunity. Nuveen reports farmland activity in Brazil and timberland activity in South America, while RMS identifies Brazil among its forest investment markets.
For landowners and investors, this means productive capacity is only part of an institutional investment assessment. Nuveen’s published approach also examines legal ownership, operating partners, water rights, environmental impacts and existing land and community rights. A property’s investment case therefore depends on documented rights, operational viability and environmental due diligence—not simply its acreage or asking price.
Latin American Real Estate News Options
Founded in 2004, GTSA began as a single office in Buenos Aires. Since then, it has grown into a vibrant regional network, providing professional real estate marketing services to clients in AR, BR, CL, PY, PE, and UY.
