The Forestry Commission in the UK has renewed its support for the IPD UK Forestry Index for a minimum of three years, said Investment Property Databank which runs the index.
The commission has supported the index financially since it started in 1992, and the latest decision will help to secure the future of the series until at least 2006, IPD said.
The index series began when IPD was commissioned to carry out a study on the feasibility of constructing an index of forestry investment returns earned by private investors in the principal coniferous species. The first series was published in 1993.
Because of the conventions IPD has adopted for the index, the returns reported in the Forestry index are strictly comparable with those reported by IPD for commercial property and published series for other asset classes.
The poor performance of equity markets in recent years is already increasing interest in alternative asset classes such as forestry, said IPD. “A number of specialist forestry funds are already operating both in the UK and overseas,” it said.

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