Working forests have provided products like timber and paper to the global economy for centuries. Today, their value is broader and more urgent than ever. Forests offer a vital opportunity to address climate change, conserve biodiversity, expand recreational access, and protect critical ecosystems, all while continuing to produce commercial forest products. 

That’s the promise of climate-smart forestry: an approach to forest management that seeks to generate financial returns while maximizing long-term ecological and social value. EFM—a forest investment and management firm with a two-decade track record—has been at the forefront of this shift since 2005. 

With its recent acquisition of the 68,000-acre Olympic Rainforest in Washington State, EFM is demonstrating how climate-smart forestry can scale: combining sustainable timber production with carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, recreation, and community partnerships. It’s a model for what the future of forest management—and forest-based climate solutions—can and must become. Capitalizing this expansion, however, requires collaboration and creativity in financing.   

A Landscape of Global Significance  

EFM’s newest acquisition—the Olympic Rainforest—is a coastal temperate rainforest located adjacent to Olympic National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Previously managed for industrial timber production for nearly a century, this 68,000-acre property is uniquely positioned to showcase how FSC-certified, climate-smart forestry can deliver meaningful climate, conservation, and community outcomes. 

The Olympic Rainforest contains more than 10 million tonnes of stored carbon and is home to six species listed under the Endangered Species Act, including critical habitat for wild salmon. By transitioning the property to a more sustainable forest management model, EFM plans to nearly double timber stocks over 15 years, while also sequestering a projected one million additional tonnes of CO₂ over the next decade through an Improved Forest Management (IFM) carbon project—one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest. 

But the benefits go far beyond carbon. EFM is also seeking to enhance biodiversity, protect watersheds, support tribal cultural values, improve flood resilience, and expand public access for recreation. The acquisition of this land allows for landscape-scale conservation in a globally significant area with one of the largest old-growth forests in the continental U.S. It offers the opportunity to influence conservation and restoration on 5 million acres and create a 150-mile conservation corridor—from Hood Canal to the Olympic Marine Sanctuary on the Pacific Coast. 

Unlocking Carbon Finance with Meta and Microsoft  

Forest carbon projects are typically developed only after land is secured. A major barrier to their success is the risk project developers like EFM take on before knowing the buyer, the demand and the price of the credits.  

EFM flipped the script by securing long-term carbon offtake agreements during the acquisition process. Meta and Microsoft committed early to purchase high-quality carbon removal credits from the Olympic Rainforest project, providing critical revenue certainty that helped de-risk the acquisition for investors and affirmed EFM’s climate-smart approach as a credible, long-term strategy. 

Meta’s agreement for 676,000 credits through 2035 catalyzed the transaction, while Microsoft followed with an agreement for up to 700,000 credits. These are among the first known contracts of this kind—structured in parallel with a property acquisition—marking the growing sophistication of carbon finance in the forestry sector. 

Meta and Microsoft are exactly the kind of counterparties EFM values when developing a carbon project. Both entities have deep commitments to climate action and use carbon credits as a tool alongside broader decarbonization strategies. 

Investing in Scale: Microsoft’s Support for EFM Fund IV  

In Microsoft’s case, the partnership with EFM was two-fold. The Olympic Rainforest property was purchased by a consortium of buyers that included EFM Fund IV. Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund made an early investment in Fund IV, marking its first forestry investment in the U.S. This support provides a cornerstone for the Fund’s goal of raising $300 million to scale climate-smart forestry across more properties like the Olympic Rainforest. 

One of the attractive aspects of the Fund for Microsoft was the ability to source more high-quality IFM carbon credits from future Fund IV assets. This dual investment approach—at both the project and platform levels—unlocks access to an estimated 2.3 million additional credits through the acquisition of other priority landscapes. It also sends a powerful market signal that forest-based carbon credits are essential and investable climate solutions. 

EFM Fund IV: Scaling Climate-Smart Forestry Across the U.S.  

EFM Fund IV is designed to deploy up to $300 million into the acquisition and management of working forests that can generate financial returns while delivering measurable climate and ecological benefits. The fund focuses on properties in the Western United States – and elsewhere in the country – that are suitable for climate-smart forest management, with the goal of maximizing carbon sequestration, enhancing biodiversity, and improving long-term forest resilience. 

By integrating revenue from timber, carbon, conservation easements, and recreation, Fund IV seeks to demonstrate how forests can serve as diversified, high-performing natural assets. The fund’s first investment—the Olympic Rainforest property—sets the standard for how this strategy can be executed at scale. Fund IV will seek to replicate this model across priority geographies where climate-smart forest management can provide a competitive advantage for investors and long-term benefits for local communities. 

Climate-Smart Forestry in Action  

EFM’s approach to climate-smart forestry is rooted in long-term stewardship, blending financial performance with ecological resilience. The firm implements forest management practices that extend harvest rotations, restore degraded stands, protect high-value conservation areas, and maintain continuous forest cover. All EFM properties are FSC-certified, ensuring that timber is harvested responsibly and sustainably. 

On the carbon front, EFM is also raising the bar on integrity in Improved Forest Management (IFM), using dynamic baselines, conservative harvest assumptions, and a rigorous, transparent approach to project design. These innovations ensure that carbon credits represent durable, measurable, and additional climate benefits. Read the press release here.

A New Model for Nature-Based Climate Solutions  

Together, the Olympic Rainforest acquisition, carbon offtake agreements, and platform investments represent a transformative new model for how nature-based solutions can be financed at scale. They demonstrate how aligned capital, climate-smart management, and collaboration can unlock the full potential of forests to deliver value across a broad front. 

EFM is proving that climate-smart forestry is not only viable—it’s scalable. The Olympic Rainforest is just the beginning.