How does forestry compare as a long-term investment prospect?

Forests do many things for us all - they scrub carbon from the air, provide a flexible building material and mitigate flood risk, according to Gresham House's Richard Davidson.

But what about as a long-term investment prospect? Global forestry investment performance has delivered low correlations to the stockmarket but has given protection against inflation. The UK has one of the best softwood conifer-growing environments in the world. The key commercial species, Sitka Spruce, will grow by 4%-5% annually regardless of what GDP and the FTSE are doing. As the tree grows, not only is there more of it to harvest, but the bigger sections of the tree are more valuable to sawmill buyers. Timber, German property and small caps: Three alternative trusts make their...