Tijuca Forest established as National Park

Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, the Tijuca Forest was the site of widespread devastation due to sugarcane and coffee agriculture. Degradation of the forest caused a major water supply crisis in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the early 1860s, which led Emperor Dom Pedro II to demand that degraded areas be replanted. Careful replanting efforts, together with gradual regeneration restored Tijuca Forest, which was declared a national park in 1961. Today, it is entirely surrounded by Rio de Janeiro, the second most populous city in Brazil, making it the world's largest urban forest. It is a precious example of the now-rare Atlantic Forest biome, and is home to 67 threatened plant species, including eleven species that occur nowhere else. Rainfall is notably higher in the park than in other areas of the city, while temperatures are notably cooler.