Up until that point it had belonged to various illustrious owners, such as the French architect Grandjean de Montigny, the Marquis of Sao Vicente (Antonio Pimenta Bueno), the Lord of Santa Urearia (Antonio Teixeira) and finally, the Guinle family. The park covers an area of 470,000m2 over several levels.

Paths, Lakes and Waterfall:
On these pathways the residents and the visitors enjoy walking to get to know a little bit of the park. On sunny days, students from local schools tend to come directly from school to the waterfall with their swimming costumes under their school uniforms, and only leave when the sun goes in.

History of the City Museum:
The museum, founded in 1934, contains a valuable exhibition of the development of Rio de Janeiro. It was re-inaugurated in September 1996 after restoration work.

The proximity of the City Park to the National Park of Tijuca is important in conservation terms, as various native flowers are found there, some of which provide shelter and food for the native fauna of the region.

South Africa has a complex history, and the end of apartheid in 1994 exposed massive problems such as unemployment, social inequality and a high poverty level.

Tourism has developed since 1994, and “tourism activity owned and operated by or for a community that directly benefits the communities through employment and social investment” is important.

This is what FTTSA tries to do. It is an NGO that deals with “certification”. This is an independent stamp of approval given to tourism related business that operate in a certain (i.e. community benefiting) way. It is voluntary, but having the certification gives the company better market standing. It deals with both community based tourism, yet also more luxurious hotels for example, that demonstrate they are working under the guidelines of sustainable tourism. For example, a big, expensive hotel would have to employ a certain number of people from the community or use a certain amount of local produce, so that the tourists coming to an area directly benefit that specific area. The idea is that it is not mass tourism (where lots of people have poorly paid jobs), but rather a developmental tourism that is a sustainable operation involving communities. South Africa is the first country to try this, and it is something that if tailored to specific countries, could work in other places.