The major objective of this work was to identify and quantify forest fragments suitable to be used as private protected land in rural properties located in the São Bartolomeu creek watershed, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The methodological procedures included: mapping of 78 forest fragments through the visual interpretation of an Ikonos II satellite image; delineation of Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs) from a hydrographically conditioned digital elevation model and mapping of 292 rural properties through interviews with owners, with the aid of a printed Ikonos II image. The generated maps were overlapped (crossed), allowing the identification of forest fragments that could be used as private protected land in rural property. The result indicated that, from the total of properties evaluated, only 41 (14.04%) have more than 20% of forest cover, and therefore, are in condition to attend the environmental law for private protected land.
Permanent preservation area; Ikonos II image; forest fragment; GIS