popular today with hikers and nature lovers, this forest has actually played a most significant role in the history of the city throughout the centuries.

originally a tropical rainforest, then a sugar plantation, later a coffee plantation, and then again restored into a forest, this area is as rich of history as it is of flora & fauna. 

the demand for sugar cane in the mid-seventeenth century meant that farmers began clearing large tracts of the forest through controlled fires.

the area was also deforested for timber, much of which was converted into coal for use in rio de janeiro.