A mangrove tree on Pate Island, Kenya
A mangrove tree on Pate Island A mangrove tree on Pate Island © Mwangi Kirubi

Cause Marketing

Our Partnership With Minecraft

Bringing conservation to the gaming world

As world leaders in conservation, we at TNC know that community support and collaboration are key to achieving our goals to protect the lands and waters on which all life depends. The more attention we can bring to our planet's needs, the more we can inspire action that can make a real difference in addressing key conservation issues.

That's why we're partnering with Minecraft — to raise funds and bring conservation awareness to new audiences for the next generation.

Focusing on Mangroves in Minecraft Play

Healthy mangrove forests are hotspots of biodiversity, cornerstones of climate resilience and a source of livelihoods for coastal communities worldwide. Mangrove trees can absorb four times more carbon than terrestrial trees, making them critical to addressing the climate crisis. But mangroves are under threat, largely due to human activity. 

Minecraft Mangroves: Making an Impact The Minecraft community raised over 227,000 USD and awareness for real world mangrove tree restoration. Check out the Rooted Together map with Grian, Wild, Authentic Games and Stacyplays, and the work TNC supports in Kenya by the Mtangawanda Women’s Association.

Rooted Together

To help bring attention to the plight of mangroves and the urgently important benefits they provide, Minecraft created Rooted Togetheran interactive map where players can explore a mangrove-based ecosystem in-game.

Players can plant mangroves, measure CO2 levels, and see new wildlife in the game, creating an interactive demonstration of how climate trends and biodiversity depend on the health of the mangrove habitat. The more mangroves players plant, the less dangerous climate change becomes, and the more animals will be able to return to their homes.

Supporting Conservation at TNC

In addition to the in-game interaction with mangrove ecosystems, Mojang Studios contributed $200,000 to TNC in support of our mission. Minecraft creators hosted individual charity streams this past July reaching 33,500 live viewers and over 350,000 video on demand views. These creators played Minecraft live and helped educate viewers about the importance of mangroves worldwide, as well as shared some of TNC's efforts to protect and restore this important ecosystem.

Red Mangrove
Red Mangrove Red Mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) grows along the edge of Baie Liberte. © Tim Calver
Mangrove oyster habitat
Mangrove oyster habitat Oysters grow on the mangrove coastline of Charlotte Harbor Estuary near Punta Gorda, Florida located on the Gulf of Mexico. © Carlton Ward Jr.
Red Mangrove Red Mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) grows along the edge of Baie Liberte. © Tim Calver
Mangrove oyster habitat Oysters grow on the mangrove coastline of Charlotte Harbor Estuary near Punta Gorda, Florida located on the Gulf of Mexico. © Carlton Ward Jr.

Learn more about the State of the World's Mangroves and TNC's efforts to protect and restore this important ecosystem.

Past Campaigns

TNC and Minecraft have teamed up in the past! Check out the 2018 coral crafters campaign below.

Coral Crafters – How Minecraft Helped the Oceans! To celebrate the Minecraft Update Aquatic, Minecraft has been working with TNC and other partners to help the real-world oceans, through Coral Crafters – a project to help coral reefs!

Joining The Nature Conservancy in its coral restoration efforts, Minecraft created a way to protect and restore coral reefs through play. With the launch of its Update Aquatic in 2018, Minecraft invited gamers to build with coral in-game to help restore and regrow coral in real life. Shortly after the update launched, it took players only two days to place more than 10 million coral blocks in game, prompting Minecraft to contribute $100,000 to TNC.

Additionally, Minecraft contributed the net proceeds from its Coral Crafters Skin Pack, a selection of sea-worthy skins from Ocean Explorer to Sea Pickle Monster, to support TNC’s coral restoration work.

Coral Reefs Need Help Now

Coral reefs are some of the most important ecosystems we have in the world. Unless we take immediate action, scientists estimate that we could lose up to 70 percent of coral reefs by 2050.

Click here to learn more about the Conservancy’s coral restoration efforts.