Harvard Endowment Fund

Harvard’s investment in land and natural resources
- Harvard Crimson
- 14 May 2019
Harvard University has been grabbing lands from indigenous communities, cutting down forests, and depriving rural people of access to water around the world for years.
Stopping colleges’ land grabs: Farmers and faculties unite
- Grassroots International
- 24 April 2019
Grassroots International is supporting partners and allies in a global campaign to stop violent and illegal land grabs at their source: the massive financial investments of pension funds and college endowments.
After local outcry, a Harvard-owned vineyard project faces environmental review
- Harvard Crimson
- 06 Mar 2019
Despite Cuyama Valley being one of the most severely overdrawn basins in California, Harvard recently proposed a plan to build three large reservoirs in the area for its vineyard, much to the chagrin of neighboring residents and farmers.
The rebirth of Harvard's divestment movement
- The Crimson
- 14 February 2019
A three-day campaign called “Land Under Siege,” consisting of a teach-in, a Mass. Hall rally and an organiser training event, was organized by Harvard Undergraduates for Environmental Justice.
Harvard activists rally, petition for divestment from farmland, prison industry
- The Crimson
- 12 February 2019
Students gathered in front of Harvard’s central administration to urge Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow to divest the University’s $39.2 billion endowment from farmland holdings around the world.
The dormant breadbasket of the Asia-Pacific
- The Diplomat
- 12 February 2019
The Russian government has actively supported foreign investment in Siberian agriculture, making 1 million hectares of arable land in the Far Eastern Federal District available to foreign buyers
Harvard's Endowment profits from California's dwindling water supply
- The Takeaway
- 19 December 2018
In California's wine country, Harvard University's multi-billion dollar endowment is looking to take advantage of water scarcity.
Foreign farmland investors in Brazil linked to 423,000 hectares of deforestation
- CRR
- 18 December 2018
Harvard University, the US pension fund manager TIAA/Nuveen and Japan's Mitsui are among the foreign companies buying up Brazilian farmlands that are responsible for over 420,000 ha of deforestation in the Cerrado since 2000.
Harvard quietly amasses California vineyards—and the water underneath
- WSJ
- 10 December 2018
Making a bet on climate change, the university’s $39 billion endowment has been snapping up farmland and the related water rights
Harvard spent $100 million on vineyards. Now it's fighting with the neighbors
- Bloomberg
- 15 November 2018
The fight over a vinyard in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains illustrates the risks that Harvard’s endowment once embraced with its unusual strategy of investing directly in massive agriculture projects around the world.
Harvard Management Company Inc's Natural Resources Sustainable Investing Guidelines
- Harvard
- 10 October 2018
Harvard University's endowment fund has 5 principles that guide its investments in natural resources, including farmland
How Harvard’s investments exacerbate global land and water conflicts
- Grist
- 09 October 2018
The elite university has quietly become one of the largest owners of farmland in the world, according to a new report by GRAIN, an international nonprofit supporting small farmers, and Brazil-based Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos