A Fund-Based Timberland Investment Performance Measure and Implications for Asset Allocation

Abstract

Timberland investment management companies and institutional investors use indexes to calculate the performance of timberland investments. Most indexes are based on hypothetical timberland properties. The Timberland Performance Index (TPI), a fund-based performance measure, provides composite returns for actual, institutionally owned timberlands. The TPI has several desirable attributes: it uses publicly available data from real properties, is weighted by asset value, has a sufficiently long historical record that meaningful comparisons can be made with other assets, and can be updated quarterly. The TPI is employed to demonstrate how adding timberland to a portfolio influences risk-return relationships for institutional portfolios. For the 1981-1996 period it is found that adding timberland tends to enhance returns for given levels of risk. This is consistent with previous research, which employed hypothetical timberland indexes for this purpose. South. J. Appl. For. 22(3):143-147.