After Corona–rebuilding habitats for humans

Abstract

COVID-19 has exposed the frailty of so many of our urban systems for living. The tyranny of maintenance over utility, the perpetuation of development indifferent to the people inhabiting its spaces and places, and the segregation of humanity from the ecological networks that surround and sustain it. The recovery from pandemic will need to draw on a forgotten discipline from half a century ago. Human ecology (ecological humanism) is alive and well in UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Programme, and in the global network of World Biosphere Reserves, it supports. In these repositories of knowledge, experience, policy and practice, we can find the tools we need to move our cities successfully from crisis to recovery and from recovery to renewal.