There are 96 parks and 18 gardens in Moscow, including four botanical gardens. There are  of green zones besides  of forests. Moscow is a very green city, if compared to other cities of comparable size in Western Europe and North America; this is partly due to a history of having green "yards" with trees and grass, between residential buildings. There are on average  of parks per person in Moscow compared with 6 for Paris, 7.5 in London and 8.6 in New York.