Lost Forest: why is BrewDog’s green scheme causing controversy?

theguardian.com:

It is a typically eye-catching boast by the great provocateur of British brewing. James Watt, co-founder of the beer company BrewDog, pledged to plant “the biggest ever” forest in Scotland to help regenerate ancient woodlands that once carpeted the Highlands.

BrewDog’s Lost Forest would stretch over a “staggering” 50 sq km (19 sq miles), Watt said, and involve millions of trees. One promotional film said the forest would be “capable of sequestering up to 550,000 tonnes of CO2 each year”. Good soundbites, but not entirely accurate.

Kinrara, a former Highland sporting estate, climbs from the River Spey just outside Aviemore high into the sub-Arctic reaches of the Monadhliath Mountains. It is perfectly suited for the millions of birch, oak, rowan, alder and Scots pine trees BrewDog plans to plant.

To a tourist’s eye, Kinrara is picture perfect. Lone specimens of Scots pine punctuate the skyline alongside a hill track winding into the mountains known as the Burma Road. These veterans are in fact evidence of the loss centuries ago of huge woodlands and forests that once covered the flanks of these hills, a loss BrewDog has pledged to reverse. It also has plans for a distillery, eco-tourism and adventure sports on the site.

BrewDog paid £8.8m for Kinrara, according to Land Registry records, although many media reports at the time said it cost more than £10m. Its total size is equivalent to 37 sq km – not the 50 sq km it originally claimed. About a third of that has been dedicated to new woodlands. There is also a peatland restoration project.

Watt is the latest of Scotland’s green lairds, a pejorative label coined for the new generation of largely absentee Highland landowners who have bought rural estates with the climate and