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This article analyses the creation and implementation of two protected natural areas (PNA) in the city of Rio de Janeiro. It shows how this at once reveals both the social disparities in the urban evolution process and the potential for constructing the right to the city and the environment as a common good. The results of this process are conditional on balancing the main (often conflicting) goals of protected areas: nature conservation, public use and the land rights of local communities. Starting with a review of the literature on the relationship between the city and nature, the dichotomies and complementarities are presented between those two terms and the classification and designation criteria, which have given rise to a range of social representations, technical mechanisms and political effects in relation to the urban PNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]