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A forest monitoring framework using Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid cells to report forest change estimates derived from time-series satellite imagery was established for the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) in northern Guatemala. Five dates of Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery were acquired and digitally processed to quantify forest change for four time periods: 1986 to 1990, 1990 to 1993, 1993 to 1995, and 1995 to 1997. Time-series change estimates are reported for 215 UTM grid cells approximately 100 km2 each. For the period 1990 to 1997, after the designation of the MBR, the percentage of grid cells with detectable annual forest clearing increased from 38% (1990-93) to 41% (1993-95) and 45% (1995-97). Prior to the establishment of the MBR (1986-90), none of the grid cells exhibited greater than 4.0% annual forest clearing. However in the next three time periods, 7.0%, 8.8% and 9.3% of the …