By: Annika Larsen
The Inkga Group, which owns most Ikea stores, announced on January 19 that they had bought over 10,000 acres of forest near the Altamaha River Basin in Georgia.
“We truly believe responsible forest management is possible and we see that a large part of our responsibility towards the land we own–and by extension the planet–is to restore forests and plant more than we harvest,” Inkga’s managing director, Krister Mattsson, stated.
“In all our properties nature conservation is important. In this particular U.S. investment in Georgia, first it is important that the land cannot be broken up into small pieces and it remains forever forestland.”
The land was acquired from the non-profit organization The Conservation Fund, and is home to more than 350 species of plants and animals–including the longleaf pine and gopher tortoise, which are classified as endangered species. Local timber-based economies will continue to be supported, Mattsson said, and the public will have access to the area for recreational purposes.
Inkga Investments have bought around 612,000 acres of forestland in the US, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania since 2014.
While the Inkga Group is dedicated to investing in and conserving forests, they have also planted close to 7 million seedlings all over the world.