Tijuca National Park is said to be the largest urban forest in the world, with an area of 39.58 square kilometers (15.28 square miles), although this title is disputed with Johannesburg, South Africa. The park shares its name with the neighborhoods (neighborhoods) of Tijuca and Barra da Tijuca nearby. Today, Tijuca is the largest urban forest in the world and attracts around 2 million visitors a year. But in the midst of the seemingly unspoiled natural environment in the middle of one of Brazil's main urban centers, it is still possible to see the hollow shells of ranch houses that the young forest has not yet fully claimed.
Our capital is full of trees. In fact, although it may not always seem like it, London is so full of foliage that it is technically a forest. That's according to a United Nations definition that states that a forest is any place that contains at least 20 percent of trees. But it's not just real forests that make London a forest, it's everything else.
Unlike other cities (Paris, for example), London has a lot of trees and greenery right in the heart of the metropolis. Think about Hyde Park or Regent's Park to start. Or Hampstead Heath, Richmond Park and Clapham Common further to the confines of the capital. Then there's the land around estates, private gardens, London's iconic squares, 900,000 street trees and outdated “edges” such as railway embankments and roadsides as well.
In fact, a whopping 47 percent of this city is made up of green and blue spaces. But the impact of trees on our well-being is even greater than that. A study published in June showed that just a two-hour dose of nature each week significantly increased people's mental and physical health. And while it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that this means mini-breaks in the Lake District, it turns out that even short trips to city parks can improve people's mood up to four hours later.
And that doesn't even mention the joy of sitting under a cooling awning on a hot day (although that may seem quite distant in our current cold climate). But it is the Jacaranda that has become synonymous with Joburg. While Pretoria may be unofficially known as the city of Jacaranda, with more than 70,000 trees lining its streets, it is Johannesburg that has the most Jacaranda trees, with the first tree planted on Charlton Terrace in Doornfontein in the early forties. Some sources claim that the largest artificial urban forest in the world is in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The city is also home to the country's first urban park, called Rock Creek Park, as part of its approximately 7,000 acres of parkland and has two main rivers flowing through the district. Each city had to meet five fundamental standards for managing city forests and trees to gain recognition. According to the World Resources Institute, DC's urban tree canopy is nearly 35%, with nearly 2 million trees citywide. In 1961, the urban rainforest was declared a national park and, since then, it has become a popular destination in Rio de Janeiro.
Unlike a forest park, whose ecosystems are also inherited from nature's leftovers, urban forests often lack amenities such as public restrooms, paved paths, or sometimes clear borders, which are distinctive features of parks. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Tijuca National Park, established in 1961, is arguably the largest urban forest in the world. To support the population of Brazil, most of whom live near the ocean, these forests were largely cut down to make room for development, and the Tijuca de Rio forest was no exception. Parks, tree-lined streets, landscaping, planters and urban forests also translate into lower crime rates, increased revenues for the city, increased property values, and lower energy costs.
Home to a multitude of unique species, the Atlantic forest once extended along almost the entire Brazilian coast, although today only small patches remain. The wildlife park's population includes many insects, birds, howler monkeys, ocelots and other endangered species of the Amazon rainforest. It is designed to connect cities around the world in a new network dedicated to adopting the most successful approaches to managing urban forests and trees. London is the largest urban forest in the world, 388,400 acres, a real forest made up of more than 8 million trees.
Even so, it wasn't until 1817 that the city government first enacted regulations to protect the few remaining patches of forest. The Tijuca forest comprises 3,953 hectares of reclaimed land that was previously cleaned for coffee and charcoal production. Together, these tree cities form a new global network of urban forest leaders who share the same values for cities' trees and forests. .
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