the tijuca forest represents 7 percent of the whole city's territory, and owing to this, can be accessed from many different areas of rio.

not only is it a huge tourist attraction for the city, receiving an estimated two million visitors a year, it is also responsible for much of the fresh air within the city, thus known as the 'lungs of rio'.

severely diminished by extraction and farming during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, conservation and reforestation of the park began in 1861, leading to a great regeneration of the ecology of the park, and the growth of a lush, dense forest, which is now certified as a national park.