This study was carried out in the municipality of Viçosa, Forest Zone of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and its objective was to characterize the forest activity in this region; in comparison with the agriculture and stock raising, which are the traditional local activities (corn, beans, coffee and cows). To reach the proposed objective, the work was carried out in two steps: step I – characterization of the activities of forest, agriculture and cattle raising in the municipality of Viçosa-MG; step II – the comparison among these objectives. For data obtention, a questionnaire was used, previously made, and filled out by the author while interviewing farmers chosen at random in the sample. The questionnaire was applied to the rural farms with planted and with natural forests. A total of 63 farms were sampled, comprising an area of 2,096.95 ha. The natural and planted forest areas, in the sample, were of 372.00 ha and 260.17 ha, corresponding to 17.74% and 12.41%, respectively. The predominant kind of natural forest was the secondary forest (capoeira) (67.55%), and the species chosen for reforestation was eucalypt (92.68% of the planted area). 86.89% of the sampled farmers took part in forest promotional programs. The Instituto Estadual de Florestas (IEF-MG) is the main institute of promotion (74.55% of the cases) and of forest technical assistance (71.79% of the cases) in the municipality. The average use of labor in the phase of establishment, maintenance and harvest of the forest plantations was estimated at 30.21, 13.64 and 61.25 days.man/hectare, respectively, totalizing 105.10 days.man/ hectare, and the participation of familiar labor was of 25.24%. The commercialization of lumber from reforestation is not frequent (20.63% of the cases), and most of the time, it is sold for cash (61.54% of the cases), and the most common manner of selling is the standing timber (69.23% of the cases). It is the purchaser, located outside the municipality in 38.46% of the cases, who pays the transportation of wood (61.54% of the cases) and the producer establisher the price (53.85% of the cases). The costs related to the forest activity (R$/ha) were estimated at R$419.30 for establishment; R$146.49 and R$80.34 for the maintenance of the 1st and 2nd year, respectively, and, at R$2.11/m3 for the cost of wood harvesting. The forest plantations, coffee crops and pastures are concentrated at the hillside areas while crops such as corn and beans are located in flat and fertile lands and compete very little with the former. The average number of employments generated by the reforestation (eucalypt), coffee, corn, beans, milk and beef cattle were, respectively, 0.042, 0.246, 0.071, 0.176, 0.042 and 0.014 employments/hectare. The economic evaluation criteria used showed to be coherent to the economic viability of the projects. However, the B/C and the TIR were different from the others in relation to more attractive incomes for the rural owner. The investment project which presented the most attractive returns to the rural producer, by criteria of the VPL, VET, BIC, TIR and VAE was for coffee, followed by the investment projects for beans, reforestation with eucalypt, dairy cattle, corn and beef cattle.
