Dalam beberapa bulan terakhir ribuan titik kebakaran hutan menyala di sebagian besar wilayah Indonesia, khususnya Pulau Sumatera dan Kalimantan, menyebabkan polusi karbon besar-besaran, kematian karena ISPA, menghancurkan habitat serta mendorong orangutan dan satwa langka lainnya semakin dekat pada kepunahan. Tekanan untuk menyelesaikan masalah tata kelola kehutanan dan menangani kebakaran hutan semakin meningkat bersamaan dengan persiapan Indonesia untuk mendiskusikan komitmen perubahan iklimnya dalam COP 21 UNFCCC di Paris bulan Desember ini. Kuliah umum ini membahas berbagai tantangan dan kesempatan yang dihadapi Indonesia untuk mengatasi masalah kebakaran hutan. 

Currently, most of citizens live in the city. More than 3.5 million people occupy only 2% of the earth’s land, but account for 60 – 80% of energy consumption and 75% of carbon emissions. The number of population in urban ares will rapidly increase by almost 60% in 2030. Along with global trends, urbanization in Indonesia rose slightly from 42% in 2000 to 52% in 2013 which created challenges such as low funding to ensure basic public services, energy efficiency, pollution, transportation, water availability, food security, and waste management. There are three basic needs of sustainability on urban development in island and coastal environment that will be discussed in SDSN National Meeting 2015: clean water, food security, and waste management. Clean water is a vital needs of living. However, clean water still become expensive natural resource in some island and coastal environment.