Making environmental compensation visible. Biased data transparency and agrobusiness strategies in the Bahianese agricultural frontier of the Cerrado
Although environmental compensation has become a cornerstone of contemporary environmental legislation, its visibility in both landscapes and public debate remains limited. This article provides a geographical analysis of the (re)location of Legal Reserves (RLs) in the agricultural frontier of western Bahia, Brazil. Legal Reserve are portions of rural properties set aside from productive activities to support environmental conservation within agricultural landscapes. They are mandatory and they must cover 20% of each property in western Bahia. Using public datasets from the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) —Brazil’s public digital platform for monitoring environmental compliance— we developed a novel GIS-based methodology to trace RL compensation linkages across this vast territory. Our findings reveal four key patterns: 1) Compensation is extensively used by agribusiness, often involving long-distance transfers that displace conservation oblig...

