Company acquires Big Island parcel for $7.85M

The 4,500 acres is located in Paauhau on the north face of Mauna Kea

HILO » Cambium Global Timberland Ltd., said yesterday it has acquired a second parcel of leasehold timber land on the Big Island, 4,500 acres of eucalyptus on Parker Ranch land. The lease price was put at 4 million pounds sterling, or $7.85 million.

Yesterday's announcement by Cambium - based in the British Channel Islands but with land holdings in Australia and Texas as well as Hawaii - said only that the new leasehold purchase will be managed "for future timber production in response to market needs."

Parker Ranch spokeswoman Diane Quitiquit said the land is in an area called Paauhau on the north face of Mauna Kea.

A Cambium statement in January said that tax credits from its Australian timber holdings can be sold to companies producing carbon dioxide elsewhere. The company also owns an interest in 22,000 acres in east Texas.

The acquisition announced yesterday follows the leasehold purchase last year of 6,100 acres of timber land owned by Kamehameha Schools near Pahala.

The company said the Pahala timber would be sold to Tradewinds Forest Products, a company trying for roughly a decade to create a veneer mill on the Hamakua Coast for plywood production.

Tradewinds' plans for a mill are currently held up within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by a legal challenge from two residents near the proposed mill site.