This work was carried out to survey the natural forest cover of the microregion of Viçosa-MG, Brazil, in 1998, using Landsat 5 images. It was found that: a) the natural forest cover comprises 57,310 ha (24.27% of the total area), from which 24,184.80 ha (10.24%) correspond to forest and 33,125.31 ha (14.03%) correspond to "(young secondary forest); b) the municipalities that have a natural forest cover below 20% are Cajuri, Coimbra, Canaã and São Miguel do Anta, and those with a cover above 20% are Pedra do Anta, Ervália, Viçosa, Paula Cândido, Teixeiras, Porto Firme and Araponga; c) Cajuri is the municipality with the smallest growth ratein forest area and Araponga has the greatest growth rate; d) Araponga is the municipality with the greatest forest area and Coimbra has the smallest one, and e) the natural forest cover area had an increment of 13.60% from 1994 to 1998.
Survey; remote sensing techniques; natural forest cover
