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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Severin Carrell Scotland editor

Corporate tree-planting drive in Scotland ‘risks widening rural inequality’

An estate cottage in Scotland.
An estate cottage. Land prices have more than doubled in some areas of Scotland as the competition for upland estates and farmland intensifies. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

A drive by wealthy companies to plant forests in the Scottish Highlands to offset their carbon emissions risks creating even greater inequalities in rural areas, a major report has warned.

The analysis says a surge of Highland estate sales to major corporations and cash-rich investors, such as Aviva, Standard Life and BrewDog, has driven up land prices sharply and increased the elitism and exclusivity of land ownership, while they aim to limit climate heating.

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