Forests in Sweden and elsewhere in the world are becoming interesting investment objects, similar to any other kind of real estate, said Ms Elisabeth Salander-Björklund, head of Stora Enso Forest Products, at a conference held in SLU, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
The world's forests attract new kinds of investors. The giant oil company Shell is one of them. The trend is obvious and this development has its roots in the US, like so many times before.
In the last ten years many things have changed in respect of ownership of forest land and forest plantations. For the new actors investments in forest land have become at least as attractive objects as investments in ordinary office buildings.
One reason for this development is that forest companies want to sell out their holdings.
Stora Enso is one of the companies that are now only co-owners of their land in Sweden, together with other investors. In the US several companies and trusts have been established for the purpose of investing in forests.