www.economist.com/britain/2022/04/21/the-carbon-market-drives-land-sales-in-scotland
Land: the new climate opportunity / battleground
Economist: When Prince Albert purchased the 20,000-hectare (50,000-acre) Balmoral estate in 1852, he did so for his family and for the views, the grouse and the deer. Owners of estates in the Scottish Highlands have conventionally had similar motives. But a new breed of landowner is drawn to something else entirely: the estates’ ability to suck in carbon from the atmosphere.
Individuals, companies and trusts have been buying up properties for their environmental potential for about two years, says Robert McCulloch of Strutt and Parker, an estate agent. Estates in the Highlands are often not fertile enough for profitable farming and the properties are large, making it easier to do tree-planting or peatland restoration that sequesters carbon at scale.
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