Latest News
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ForestRe sponsor Timber Invest Europe Conference
ForestRe will be sponsoring this prestigious two day event being held on 25-26 October 2011 in London. The conference will be lead by a Specialist Advisory Board comprising of leading industry sector professionals as well as Master Classes and closed panel discussions. ForestRe will also be speaking on the subject of Mitigating Risks Against Catastrophic Natural Disasters. So if you are concerned about protecting your forestry assets and reducing the exposure to you and your investors please see the following link for more information on how to register for this event. http://www.arena-international.com/timber11/index.html
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Forestre speak at Forestry, Biomass & Sustainability Conference
12th May 2011 is a date not to be missed if you want to learn more about managing risk of forestry assets. Our own Phil Cottle will once again be giving presentations to an enlightened audience at the Forestry, Biomass & Sustainability Conference in London. Topics under discussion will be:-
Modelling forestry risks,
Risk transfer for forestry,forest bio-fuels and forest carbon
Insurance of forestry assets
Please see the following link for more information of the event. http://www.environmental-finance.com/events/view/27/programme
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ForestRe sponsors 8th Timberland Investment Summit in New York
15.10.2010
Phil Cottle MD of ForestRe will once again take to the stage and capture the imagination of much of the audience attending this years conference in New York. Phil will run a roundtable session for invited guests to discuss the latest risk management findings in assessing the cause and effect of catastrophic natural disasters on investment portfolios. If you want to avoid any potential lawsuits from your investors then you need to hear what he has to say. We are sure that you will find the sessions very interesting.
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A view from South Africa
20.09.2010
Monday morning, I get a phone call from a client in the Southern Cape to advise that they have just lost 6 hectares of fruit bearing trees due to a fire that occurred over the weekend and he wants to know if I have them covered. The good news is that the crop insurance policy we arranged included fire cover; the bad news was that only the crop was insured and not the trees.
A few minutes later I get an email from the United nations Environmental program asking me to complete a survey on climate change and the effects it has on our industry, being insurance. Before I push delete, as we so often do with these types of emails, I read the questions and start asking myself the question. "If the Southern Cape did not have such a severe drought, would a fire like this have occurred and spread to dry grass and cause damage estimated at thousands of rand to farms and crops? Yes, No or Irrelevant?" The answer was undoubtedly No.
All these seemingly small changes in climate, be it drought that allows runaway fires, to snow in Europe, all have a dramatic effect on the way we do business and are having to change our farming and marketing practises. We could have the most beautiful weather conditions and produce the most magnificant fruit, but if our buyers are stuck in their homes and don't get to buy fruit the effects are as dramatic to us in South Africa.
Sure you may say these are market risks and have to be taken into account, but how about managing the risks that you have control over. Massive crops loss with no insurance = depletion of reserves and ultimately can lead to no farm.
Over the past decade the Insurance industry has adapted to the market needs and listened to its clients and come up with some innovative products that now are not only affordable, but also assist in managing some of the serious issues like climate change.
So often I hear from fruit growers, who say to me, "but the way you guys (sic) insure crops just does not pay and it's a waste of money." Sure I say "if you take out the products of ten years ago I would have agreed with that argument, but not anymore." A new breed of insurers and and intermediaries like us have come through the pains of this one sided approach and started talking to business and not just selling policies. No longer do we sell, we now listen and advise.
This approach has been hugely successful and renewed the appetite of growers to look at the various risk management options available. Insurance 101 will tell you that spread of risk will lead to reduction in cost. This we have seen in many of the regions we operate in throughout South Africa.
Yes through all our efforts we can assist in stabilising climate change and if we remain positive and believe that this change will come in our lifetime then it will be so. In between now and then we (as buyers of risk management tools) can be prudent and support the initiatives that are currently available.
Ebbe Rabie B.Econ(Stel)
Glenrand M.I.B
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New team member Daniel Gil
23.08.2010
Daniel is a multi lingual qualified Economist from Brazil and brings with him a breadth and depth of expertise gained from working with Banking and Financial Institutions across Latin America. Focussing on Financial, Project Management and Pricing for an increasing portfolio of business will certainly keep him fully occupied. We welcome Daniel to the team that is ForestRe.