New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) has helped approve nearly 9,000 square kilometers of carbon-credit forests over almost 20 years, making forestry a potentially more lucrative long-term investment than sheep and beef farming. Forest owners earn credits as post-1989 trees grow and sell them to companies offsetting emissions. Since 2017, about 3,300 square kilometers of sheep and beef farmland has been sold for forestry conversion, enough to feed more than 2 million sheep, while grazing land prices rose 9.7%. The expansion has reduced livestock, jobs and services in rural communities, with local examples including the closure of a rugby club and daycare. Supporters say forestry is essential to New Zealand’s climate targets, while critics argue cheap credits allow polluters to avoid deeper emissions cuts. The government tightened rules for non-native forests on more productive land late last year, and preliminary data showed conversion purchases slowing, although the total may rise after final figures are released.