Investors may select timberland as an investment for several reasons. First, investing in timberland offers portfolio diversification ability; second, timberland investing is a good way to preserve capital; third, timberland has a history of strong returns with moderate cash flow; and lastly, investing in timberland has moderate risk.

Timberland investing attracts both private investors and institutional investors, such as pension funds, corporations, foundations and endowments.

It takes from 20 to 80 years to grow a tree to logging maturity, depending on the species and growing conditions. An experienced timberland investment manager generally buys properties that contain a variety of tree ages and species. This ensures continuous productivity as well as the ability to time harvests and cash flows to meet investor objectives.

Timberland returns are realized through timber sales, lease income and land sales.

Timberland investment by institutional investors accounts for approximately $40 billion as of 2007.

Timberland investing risks include market uncertainty (fluctuation of timber and timberland prices), relative illiquidity (compared to stocks and other financial assets) and environmental risk (natural hazards or legislation related to threatened or endangered species).

Timberland investment risk can be minimized by aggressively marketing timber when prices are favorable; by diversifying timberland investments by species, age class and end-product; and by actively managing the property (for example, by fertilizing or pre-commercial thinning). Timberland also has several natural investment characteristics that help to mitigate investment risk--the most obvious one is that trees grow, and as they do, they increase in value. Also, there is little warehousing cost with trees. They can be "stored on the stump" and harvested when timber prices improve.

Most investors allocate timberland to either the real estate or alternative asset portion of their portfolios. Some timberland investors may also designate a separate natural resource allocation.

Timberland generally requires a long-term investment (10 years or more), which is why pension funds and other institutional investors are good candidates for timberland investing since they also have a long-term investment perspective. Timberland is illiquid relative to stocks or bonds; however, if an investor wishes to liquidate all or part of a timberland property because of changing markets, return projections or diversification needs, the sales process can be quickly initiated. Because timberland is a fairly finite resource, there is generally an active market of potential buyers.

Timberland buyers can include other investors or timberland investment management organizations (TIMOs), forest products companies, federal or state governments, or conservation groups.

Historically, less than 0.5 percent of commercial timberland owned by institutional investors has been damaged annually by fire, insects, disease and other natural hazards. In addition, history has shown that 80 percent of all timber harvested following a forest fire is merchantable. For instance, when Mt. St. Helens erupted in Washington in 1980, 85 percent of the timber salvaged was sold for sawtimber or pulp. By building and maintaining excellent road systems, diversifying timberland ownership and using modern forest management techniques such as fire breaks, timberland investment managers can minimize fire's impact on portfolio performance.

Timberland investments are typically diversified by property location, timber market, tree age, species and end products. Most importantly, by investing in timberland among different regions, investors can offset the risk associated with investing in only one area.

There are several factors that affect timberland prices, but the most important include current and projected timber prices, timber inventory, investments in forest productivity, operating costs and the required rate of return or discount rate.

As of December 31, 2007, our timberland investment portfolio has produced an average annual return of 13.9%, after fees, since inception (1985).

We focus on buying large, commercial timberland properties. Large purchases give us the most potential for passing on volume discounts to our investors. Also, when parceled or divided into smaller properties, large acquisitions give moderate-sized investors equal opportunity to participate in these larger-sized transactions.

We evaluate timberland acquisition opportunities across North America as well as internationally. Our current timberland investments are located in the US South, US Northwest, US Northeast, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. We also aggressively monitor several other regions in addition to our established timberland operations.

The market value of our timberland portfolio is $7.4 billion (as of December 31, 2007).

We made our first timberland investment outside the United States in 1993 in British Columbia, Canada. As of April 1, 2008 approximately 32% of our assets under management reside outside the U.S. We are the largest private timberland owner in both Australia and New Zealand.

We employ three full-time, in-house research professionals. They support our investment decision-making in three ways. First, they conduct formal timber price forecasts twice a year. We use these forecasts in our acquisition decisions and in our hold-sell analysis, which we regularly perform for each investor. Second, they assess the appropriate rate of return from timberland based on the state of capital markets measured against the risk of individual timberland regions and properties. Lastly, they analyze specific aspects of timberland investment such as large-property discounts and the value of timberland in public and private markets. We use all of this information to develop appropriate investment strategies for our clients.

The Hancock Timber Resource Group was established in 1985 (as part of the John Hancock Life Insurance Company) to focus 100 percent on timberland investing for clients. We offered the first of our seven timberland investment funds in 1985 and began establishing individually managed accounts for investors in 1987. Hancock Natural Resource Group, Inc. is a registered investment adviser and wholly owned subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corporation. The subsidiary, Hancock Natural Resource Group, Inc., consists of the Hancock Timber Resource Group and the Hancock Agricultural Investment Group.

Yes, 13 percent of our current investors are located outside the U.S.

Our headquarters are located in Boston, Massachusetts. We also have regional offices in Charlotte, North Carolina; Vancouver, Washington; Sydney, Australia; and Rotorua, New Zealand.