Land use and occupation analysis of Permanent Preservation Areas in Lavras County, MG

The Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs) are considered essential for the maintenance of local biodiversity, so that your protection is regulated by the Brazilian legislation. This work had the objective of delimiting permanent preservation areas according to determinations of the current Brazilian environmental legislation, and identify the occurrence of conflict between the land use and legislation in Lavras county, MG, by combination of technologies of remote sensing and geographic information systems. The PPAs correspond to 42.33% of Lavras county's territory. The conflict between the land use and environmental legislation occurs in 63.48% of PPAs' territory, mainly corresponding to the pasture areas, bare soil and agriculture. The PPAs of tops of hills showed the highest conflicts with the legislation, with 48.48% of the territory occupied by pastures, and 13.62% by agriculture. The PPAs located in the surrounding of water courses and in the slopes with declivity higher than 45º presented 59.99% and 92.03%, respectively of the territory occupied by native vegetation of semi-deciduous forest and natural fields