BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group has closed fundraising for its Latin American Reforestation Strategy at 1.24 billion US dollars, making it the largest reforestation fund closed to date. The strategy, which has Conservation International serving as Impact Adviser, will conserve, restore and reforest approximately 660,000 acres of degraded landscapes across Latin America, with a particular focus on Brazil's Cerrado biome. The close matters because it demonstrates that institutional private capital can be mobilised at meaningful scale for nature based investment when projects are designed to combine commercial returns with verifiable climate and biodiversity outcomes.

 

The Scale and Structure of the Strategy

 

At full scale, the strategy aims to conserve, restore and reforest approximately 660,000 acres of degraded land across Latin America. Roughly half of this area, approximately 330,000 acres, will be dedicated to the protection and restoration of native forests and other habitats. The remaining 330,000 acres will be planted as sustainably managed commercial tree farms certified to Forest Stewardship Council standards. This balanced split between commercial and conservation land use is central to the financial logic of the strategy, because the productive forestry component generates the cash flows that support the broader restoration activities.

The strategy also incorporates the IFC Performance Standards across all operations. These standards are widely recognised as among the most rigorous environmental and social safeguards in international development finance and provide a clear framework for managing risks across biodiversity, community engagement, labour and resettlement. Their application across the entire strategy reinforces the credibility of the social and environmental claims associated with the projects under management.

 

The Role of the Brazilian Cerrado

 

A significant share of the strategy's activity is concentrated in Brazil's Cerrado biome, one of the world's most biodiverse seasonally dry ecosystems and one of the most threatened. More than half of the original land cover of the Cerrado has been cleared over recent decades, primarily for agricultural expansion. Despite its ecological importance, the Cerrado has historically received less international attention than the Amazon, which has resulted in lower levels of conservation funding and a smaller restoration footprint relative to the scale of degradation.

Deborah Spalding, Global Head of Nature Finance at Conservation International, framed the strategy as a forward thinking response to the conservation gap in this ecosystem. By directing large scale private capital to the Cerrado, the strategy addresses one of the most under invested areas of biodiversity finance globally. Early indicators show the return of biodiversity, recovery of critical water resources and the regrowth of carbon storing vegetation across project sites.

 

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On the Ground Progress to Date

 

Implementation of the strategy is already well underway. Nearly 29 million trees have been planted across more than 64,000 acres of degraded land in Brazil, and as of 2025 all of the strategy's forests are either Forest Stewardship Council certified or in the process of certification. More than 53,000 acres are now under conservation, while restoration of native and biodiverse vegetation has been initiated across more than 50,000 acres. The restoration effort is designed to connect more than 100,000 acres of natural habitat across the broader landscape, an area approximately one third the size of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

The biodiversity outcomes are already measurable. More than 1,000 species of plants and animals have been identified across the strategy's project areas. Over 400 miles of streams are under enhanced protection, and riparian buffer zones have been expanded up to 1,300 feet, nearly seven times the local legal requirement. These expanded buffers strengthen the ecological function of riparian zones and provide expanded wildlife corridors that support the longer term resilience of the surrounding landscape.

 

Community Benefits and Rural Employment

 

The strategy is designed to produce significant socioeconomic benefits in addition to its ecological outcomes. At full deployment, it is expected to support approximately 2,700 direct and indirect full time equivalent jobs, which is a meaningful increase compared with the prior land uses on much of the project area, including cattle ranching. In 2025 the strategy supported 518 full time equivalent jobs across active project sites.

Community engagement programmes have included a native seed collection initiative carried out in collaboration with the Mato Grosso do Sul Native Seed Network and local organisations. The programme has trained 26 new seed collectors and gathered 5.6 tonnes of native seeds. Sales of these seeds to nurseries and restoration projects have generated income equivalent to approximately 20 per cent of the regional average household income per collector. This kind of income diversification is significant because it ties local livelihoods directly to the success of the restoration activities, aligning community incentives with long term forest recovery.

 

The Investor Coalition Behind the Fund

 

The strategy attracted a broad coalition of institutional investors, including Azarine, BNDES, CAF, DEG, FMO, GenZero, Green Spark Ventures, the Hempel Foundation, IFC, Impact Fund Denmark, the Mobilising Finance for Forests programme funded by the United Kingdom and Dutch governments, Mitsui OSK Lines, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, NGS Super, the San Francisco State University Foundation advised by Cambridge Associates, Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire Insurance, and Vale. The combination of pension funds, development finance institutions, sovereign wealth investors, corporate strategics and family office capital reflects the breadth of the appeal that high integrity nature based strategies are now generating across the institutional landscape.

Several investors have made commitments at meaningful scale. BNDES, the Brazilian development bank, approved an investment of up to 300 million Brazilian reais, equivalent to approximately 55 million US dollars. FMO has indicated that the fund is now its largest exposure in its forestry portfolio. The presence of insurance, pension and superannuation investors alongside development finance institutions suggests that nature based investment is moving from a niche allocation into a more recognised category of long term institutional asset allocation.

 

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Carbon Credit Generation and Integrity Standards

 

The strategy is structured to generate millions of high integrity carbon removal credits, supporting global climate commitments and providing an additional revenue stream alongside sustainable timber production. BTG Pactual TIG had previously finalised two landmark nature based carbon removal credit agreements in June and September of 2024, which were among the largest such transactions on record at the time of their announcement.

In April 2026, the strategy's first carbon project, Brazil Cerrado 1, became the first project globally to be issued credits under Verra's afforestation, reforestation and revegetation methodology, known as VM0047. This methodology is among those approved under the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market's Core Carbon Principles assessment framework, which is the global benchmark for carbon credit quality and integrity. Achieving issuance under this methodology is significant because it positions the strategy at the forefront of the most rigorous certification standards currently available for nature based carbon removal.

 

Science Partnerships and Continuous Improvement

 

A defining feature of the strategy is its commitment to science based learning. BTG Pactual TIG has established a long term collaboration with the Forest Restoration Laboratory at the Federal University of Viçosa in Minas Gerais, Brazil. This partnership operates a 200 acre field experiment that compares the effectiveness of different restoration techniques, including direct seeding, native seedling planting and natural regeneration approaches. The experiment is one of the largest restoration research initiatives ever conducted in the Cerrado biome.

Initial findings from the research indicate positive outcomes across treatments, with strong site occupancy, seedling growth and natural regeneration underway. The data being generated will help identify the most effective restoration techniques for the Cerrado and inform best practice guidelines that can be applied across the wider region. This kind of structured scientific research, embedded within a commercial restoration strategy, is increasingly seen as essential to scaling restoration finance in a credible way over time.

 

What the Close Signals for Natural Capital Investing

 

The wider significance of the close is the signal it sends to the broader natural capital investment market. The 1.24 billion US dollar fund size demonstrates that ambitious collaboration between investors, timberland managers and conservation organisations can mobilise large scale private capital when projects are designed for both environmental integrity and long term performance. It also reinforces the idea that nature based investment is moving into a more institutionally recognised category, supported by certification standards, scientific research, third party impact advice and rigorous social and environmental safeguards.

For other regions and ecosystems, the BTG Pactual TIG strategy provides a reference model that combines commercial returns, large scale habitat restoration, community development and verified carbon credit generation within a single investment vehicle. The performance of the strategy over the coming years, measured by carbon outcomes, biodiversity recovery, employment generated and financial returns delivered, will play a significant role in shaping how the next generation of natural capital funds is structured and financed.

 

Source: BUSINESS WIRE