Walking through Tijuca Forest in Rio de Janeiro - PART 1

Walking through Tijuca Forest in Rio de Janeiro - Christ the Redeemer

Tijuca National Park is claimed to be the world's largest urban forest, covering some 39.58 square kilometres (15.28 sq mi), although this title is disputed with Johannesburg, South Africa.

The park shares its name with the bairros (neighborhoods) of Tijuca and Barra da Tijuca nearby. The word Tijuca comes from the Tupi language and means marsh, a reference to the Tijuca Lagoon in the contemporary Barra da Tijuca.

It is located in a mountainous region which encompasses the Tijuca Massif. Among its impressive peaks are the Pedra da Gávea and Corcovado. The forest and mountains form a natural boundary that separates the West Zone of Rio from the rest of the city, as well as dividing the North and South Zones.

One favela exists in the Tijuca Forest, called Mata Machado. Its inhabitants are mainly the descendants of those who migrated to the region in the 1930s to take part in the replanting effort. Though conditions have improved recently under the Favela-Bairro Project, it still contributes to environmental degradation in the forest.

Ecology

The Forest is home to hundreds of species of plants and wildlife, many threatened by extinction, and found only in the Atlantic Forest biome. The vegetation is so dense that scientists have estimated that ambient temperatures in surrounding areas have been lowered by up to 9 °C. The forest also contains some 30 waterfalls.