How Mojang Studios contributes to mangrove forest preservation

In The Wild Update, gamers were greeted by the mangrove biome, which drew them closer to a world with rich flora and fauna. Mojang Studios has seen this as an opportunity to use its famous blocky game to promote its environmental cause of helping mangrove forests in danger to prosper once more.

“Real-world mangrove trees have a huge impact on our environment,” writes Minecraft’s Sofia Dankis in a blog post announcing the studio’s environmental efforts for mangroves. “Just like all plants, they need carbon dioxide to grow. Thanks to their big, tangled root systems that grow underwater, mangroves are able to store that carbon dioxide for thousands of years after the tree itself dies. This is really important for our planet’s health, and mangroves can only trap all that carbon dioxide if they grow in a healthy forest. We need to act now to preserve and restore our mangrove forests, because only half of them remain.“

To show its dedication to the cause, Mojang Studios promises to donate $200,000 to The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental nonprofit, between June 13, 2022 and December 31, 2022. The studio also underlines to its gamers and fans that all the donations won’t come from any of the purchases that will be made in the Minecraft Marketplace.

On the other hand, to push the cause even further, the studio also partnered with the map makers at Everbloom Games to produce a new free map called “Rooted Together.” The map will take you to a world reflecting the reality being faced by the mangrove forests nowadays: diminishing tropical coastal vegetation. It is designed to take players on a journey where they will be educated on the importance of mangroves to the lives of the community and nature itself.

The objective is pretty simple – bring back the life of the mangrove forest to invite the wildlife to come back. Gamers will be given a new seed scatter cannon that they can use to instantly plant mangroves in the virtual world and eliminate the levels of CO2 (which they can also measure using a device) in the place.

“Inside the game of Minecraft, I super believe that they can make a difference,” Camille Rivera, a marine conservationist at Oceanus, commented about the new educational map. “They can create awareness about mangroves. They can share that knowledge. We will be able to protect this ecosystem globally.”