Who has the Right to Urban Green Areas? Environmental Justice in a Brazilian Metropolis

Urban green areas are essential for the quality of life of people living in large cities. In Brazil, 84.7% of the population lives in cities; however, studies assessing urban tree cover distribution and population's accessibility to such spaces are scarce. We aim at assessing urban green areas’ distribution and accessibility in Rio de Janeiro City, according to places where people live in and to dominant economic classes in each neighborhood. In order to do so, 123 public areas larger than 5,000 m² were selected to the study, as well as the city's tree cover network. It was mainly done to analyze both tree vegetation distribution and afforestation rate per capita in each neighborhood in the city, and the profile of the population that has the greatest accessibility to herein selected green areas. In addition, the main aim of the present study is to analyze the likely contributions from tree cover to mitigate mean temperature increase in the city's neighborhoods. Based on the results, the white population, and the one with the highest income per capita, live in neighborhoods with milder temperatures, greater tree cover and closer to the selected areas. They potentially benefit more from ecosystem services than Black people and the low-income population. Finally, it is highlighted the need to find ways to achieve greater equity in the distribution of tree canopy coverage and accessibility to green areas.