Online game aims to save rainforests
Howard Lake | 24 November 2004 | News
A challenging new online computer game designed to raise awareness of the impending destruction of the world’s second largest rainforest has gone live. ‘Raiders of the Lost Bark,’ released by the Rainforest Foundation [1], invites players to dodge fast-rolling logs, avoid flying chainsaws, leap across burning forests… and stop the carve-up of the Congo’s rainforests.
In a cutting edge approach to campaigning, the Rainforest Foundation has enlisted the latest technology in its efforts to call on the World Bank to save the world’s last great rainforest frontier in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). [2]
Advertisement
When players finish the game they are invited to take real life action and send an email to World Bank President James Wolfensohn, asking him to halt proposed industrial logging in the country and develop alternatives to benefit the 35 million people [3] living in and around the forest who depend on it for their survival. [4]
“We wanted to take a very serious issue and make it interactive and so engaging that people would want to take action,” said Rob Daly, Rainforest Foundation Fundraising Manager. “The internet also offers a low-cost, paper-less medium for reaching people.”
Within days of its release, ‘Raiders of the Lost Bark’ made the Top 10 list on Kontraband.com, a leading online entertainment website. It is also being launched through Freeloader.com.
"While it is too early to ascertain the full results of the campaign, website daily visits have increased three-fold over last month’s average," said Rob Daly, "and a staggering 15-fold compared to the daily average for 2003."
Log on to ‘Raiders of the Lost Bark’ at www.rainforestfoundation.org.uk/s-games.
-ends-
Contact:
Rob Daly 020 7251 6345
ro**@ra**********.com
Rosemary Brown 020 7251 6345
ro*******@ra**********.com
[1] The Rainforest Foundation UK supports indigenous people and traditional populations of the world’s rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfil their rights.
[2] The World Bank is supporting plans that would open up 60 million hectares – an area the size of France – to industrial logging.
[3] According to the Bank’s own estimates, as many as 35 million of the Congo’s 50 million people depend on the forests for their very survival.
[4] For background information on the campaign to stop the carve-up of the Congo Rainforests, visit www.rainforestfoundation.org.uk/s-Campaign News.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.