The sustainable forest management promotes financial revenues while keeping the forest cover and most of its environmental services. Nevertheless, the logging operation inevitably causes changes in the forest and canopy structure; this paper has the objective of evaluate the changes in the forest canopy following logging. We used hemispherical photography to determine the Canopy Openness (CO), Leaf Area Index (LAI) and the radiation absorption (fAPAR) in nine sample units before and after the logging. The canopy variables did not present relation to the forest structure (basal area and density) before or after the logging. There was a significant increase of the canopy opening and consequent decrease of the other canopy variables after logging. The increase in canopy opening and decrease in radiation absorption had statistical correlation with the logging intensity, while the leaf area index did not showed the same pattern at the study area.

Keywords: forest management, atlantic forest, hemispherical photography, canopy, leaf area index, canopy openness