It’s been called Lego for the digital age, the popularity of Minecraft—created by Microsoft-owned developer Mojang—lying in the game’s ability to let anyone dive right in and create anything they could possibly imagine.
Now a new community-made and charity-backed map of the game is going one step further, creating an interactive world to help teach children (and adults) the importance of conservation, and the terrible dangers Africa’s wildlife face from poachers.
We are the Rangers is a collaboration between community users @dragnoz @samasaurus6 and @buckingirl4 (not to mention 113 others) and the anti-wildlife-trade partnership United for Wildlife.
The mission statement as outlined on wearetherangers.com explains: ‘The world is today facing unparalleled pressure from poachers and the illegal wildlife trade. It’s estimated that elephants are being killed at a rate of 35,000 per year—equivalent to 96 per day. The challenge was to help us develop the components for a map that highlights the terrible dangers facing wildlife from poachers, and the rangers who are battling to protect them.’
‘We wanted the help of the Minecraft community to help us raise awareness of a wildlife crisis (and create an awesome map at the same time)… the more people who are talking about it, the more pressure [we put] on those people involved in the trade including those that consume wildlife products.’
There are currently five quests to complete on the map: to download and play them (you’ll need a copy of Minecraft first) please visit: wearetherangers.com