Australian Forest Fund Limited Established To Pioneer Environmental Investment In The Forestry Sector

SYDNEY, August 15, 2002 -A pioneering forestry investment venture, combining timber production with carbon sequestration credit trading, is being launched in the Green Triangle area of Victoria, South Australia and in Western Australia.

Australian Forest Fund Limited (Australian Forests), a wholly owned subsidiary of Zurich Capital Markets (ZCM), has been established to own and develop nearly 207,000 acres of forestry and land assets. ZCM is a leading provider of innovative financial products and services for the Alternative Asset Management industry and a member of the Zurich Financial Services Group.

Hancock Natural Resource Group (HNRG) Australia Pty. Ltd. will act as investment manager for Australian Forests. HNRG is the world's largest forestry investment management organization for institutional investors with more than $2.6 billion and 3.2 million acres under management in North America and Australia.

"We are establishing Australian Forests as a growing business that will provide the opportunity for investors to participate in both traditional timber investment, as well as the emerging market for carbon sequestration credits," said Mike Watanabe, a managing director of ZCM.

"Forests can provide a much wider value to investors than simply timber production," said Dr. David Brand, director of carbon programs for HNRG. "As a carbon pool, Australian Forests will apply the concepts of carbon sequestration that have been developed in Australia over the past few years."

The initial assets, located in the Green Triangle area of Victoria and South Australia, as well as in Western Australia, were acquired from the Administrator of Australian Plantation Timber Limited (APT) earlier this year.

In addition to the former APT assets, Australian Forests will invest approximately $8 million in reforestation of over 14,000 acres of land in 2002.

Australian Forests will establish a carbon pooling approach to carbon accounting and forecasts that at least 16 million tons of carbon sequestration credits will be generated from the initial forestry assets over the next 20 years.

As Australian Forests expands, further carbon sequestration will be created. Australian Forests also intends to undertake biodiversity and conservation planting of over 12,000 acres of land in the coming years, where no timber harvesting is anticipated.

The organization also aims to have its forests certified under the Forest Stewardship Council, demonstrating environmentally sensitive management practices.

HNRG has also concluded property management agreements with Treecorp, of Colac, Victoria and Integrated Tree Cropping (ITC) of Perth, Western Australia to support the on-the-ground reforestation and management of Australian Forests' assets.

In late 2000, HNRG established its 'New Forests' program. This effort was designed to show how forests can be an instrument to address global environmental challenges including climate change, land and water degradation and loss of biodiversity.

"Australian Forests will turn the theory of 'New Forests' into practice, said Dr. Brand.

Hancock Natural Resource Group Australia Pty. Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hancock Natural Resource Group, Inc. (HNRG), the world's largest forestry and agricultural investment management organization for institutional investors with more that $2.9 billion in assets under management and 3.3 million acres in North America and Australia. Boston-based HNRG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of John Hancock Financial Services (NYSE:JHF). John Hancock Financial Services, Inc. and its affiliated companies, including John Hancock Life Insurance Company, provide a broad array of insurance and investment products and services to retail and institutional customers. As of June 30, 2002, John Hancock and its subsidiaries had total assets under management of $123.7 billion.