Since 2005, more people live in cities worldwide than in rural areas – a first in human history.

As a result, how we structure our cities, particularly in relationship to the natural world, is a key ecological as well as social, economic, political, and ethical question. This forum will explore the natural city concept through the living lens of the City of Toronto. World Wildlife Fund Canada president David Miller, former mayor of the City of Toronto will moderate a panel exploring the top ecological issues facing Toronto, and how a natural city perspective might help or hinder addressing such issues. Other panelists include Professor Roger Kiel former director of the City Institute at York University, Professor Hilary Cunningham of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Professor Pamela Robinson of Ryerson University and Stephen Bede Scharper, Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Toronto, and co-editor of The Natural City: Re-envisioning Human Settlements (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013).

The natural city concept tries to re-imagine urban sustainability around a deeper integration of human and non-human life systems. It imagines the human presence not as an aberration but as an organic and “natural” development in the progress of human settlements.