Prey Lang (“Our Forest”) is the largest evergreen lowland forest remaining in South East Asia, and it is under threat.It is home to an indigenous population of 200,000 native Kuy who have lived in peaceful harmony with the forest for hundreds of years. The majority of families sustain themselves by harvesting resin, rottan, spiders, palm hearts, and medicinal plants.A recent report from USAID estimates that without urgent action, the forest will be effectively gone in 2-3 years.

EarthAction, a global network of over 2,000 organizations in 160 countries, and Cultural Survival, an advocacy organization for Indigenous Peoples’ rights, have begun a worldwide campaign to protect the Prey Lang forest in Cambodia—its people, its trees, its life. The international campaign supports and complements the local efforts of the Prey Lang Community Network, a group of mostly Indigenous people whose villages surround the Prey Lang forest and whose livelihoods depend on the forest’s resources. Prey Lang, about the size of Rhode Island, is the last large primary forest of its kind on the Indochina peninsula.

What is desertification? It is a process by which fertile soil nutrients are leached due to topsoil erosion from climatic effects and poor agricultural practices. This process transforms arable land into a dry desert unequipped for the growing of crops and other common agricultural practices. The Navajo Nation in the southwestern United States is the largest area of severely desertified land in North America.

Kony 2012, a campaign by Invisible Children to make famous the insidious actions of one Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. Watch the video,then read EarthAction interns Christine and Walker's four reasons why this viral campaign isn’t enough to solve Uganda’s conflict and see suggestions for further research.Read our list and then you be the judge- has Invisible Children brought an important issue to it’s long awaited fame on the internet? Or has it oversimplified a complex issue and cast Westerners as the heroes?

Watch this simple but powerful demonstration by Yukie Hori of the UNCCD about why we must combat desertification.

The past two days of the World Forum on Desertification have been a great success! Thanks to everyone who has participated. If you missed it, here are some highlights:

Despite the international ban on the trade of Elephant Ivory in 1989, it is estimated that every year 38,000 elephants are killed for ivory sales on the black market.Poachers sell raw ivory for around $20 per pound. Most of this ivory eventually makes its way to China, where it is resold at $700 per pound—or more. This means that a single tusk from a full-grown bull elephant can fetch upwards of $50,000 on the black market. The poaching of elephants for their ivory tusks requires the death of some of the most beautiful and endangered animals on our planet.

This is a reminder that you are invited to participate in a Virtual World Community Forum on Desertification and Citizen Action -- Saving the Life-Giving Soils of the World, that will take place from Tuesday, February 28, 2012 to Tuesday, March 6, 2012.

You are invited to participate in a Virtual World Community Forum on Desertification and Citizen Action—Saving the Life-Giving Soils of the World that will take place Tuesday, February 28 through Tuesday, March 6, 2012. The Forum is being co-sponsored by the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), EarthAction, and The Global Citizens Initiative (TGCI). The Forum is being made available at no cost to participants.