The management plans presently being carried out are, in the majority, a forest exploitation done with as if it were a management plan. This work was carried out in order to help differentiate these two types of exploitations. It was aimed at verifying the sustainability of the Cerrado management plan carried out on Santa Cecília farm, in the municipality of João Pinheiro, in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, through the structural analysis of the vegetation, identifying some of its impacts in relation to a non exploited cerrado area. The evaluation was made by plots that were established in the explored area in 1994/95 and in the non explored area. The results of the horizontal structure analysis showed that there were significant differences in the absolute density and the total volume and absolute dominance between the areas studied. The results of diametric structure showed a significant difference for the density distribution and between the basal area and total volume. These results indicate that the exploration was done beyond the limits that could allow the recovery of the vegetation for a new harvest at the end of rotation cycle.
Cerrado or savanna; phytosociologic structure and management plan
