This post was written by Cory Scheviak, Founder of Love Tropics.
“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit — this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
From November 21–23, 2025, a global community of gamers, creators, and supporters came together online for Love Tropics, an annual 48-hour charity livestream. Hosted across Twitch, YouTube, and a custom Minecraft world, this year’s event raised over $36,000 for EVA—The Living School of the Amazon, an educational initiative supported by Pachamama Alliance. To the dozens of event organizers, hundreds of donors, and tens of thousands of viewers, the Earth has probably never felt more like the inhabited garden Goethe spoke of.
A Minecraft World Inspired by the Amazon
In 48 hours, 233 gamers joined together in the virtual Minecraft world we had created with heavy inspiration from the Ecuadorian Amazon. Together, in that world, we built scale models of EVA school buildings and traditional Amazonian homes, played games together, and learned about EVA and Pachamama Alliance.
Outside of the game, almost 21,000 people tuned in to the livestream on the Love Tropics channel alone, with tens of thousands more who tuned in on other channels across Twitch and YouTube.
How Love Tropics Began
Love Tropics began in 2017 on an impulsive desire to support Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island by a small group of creators behind the Minecraft mod Tropicraft. We didn’t let our lack of experience or preparedness stop us - we wanted to use our platform and reach to help however we could. With less than a month to get ourselves ready, we set out to raise $3,000 for Direct Relief to bring aid to the island. None of us had experience organizing a charity event, few of us had even livestreamed anything before. We just knew we loved Minecraft and wanted to give back to the island that had inspired the creation of the Minecraft hobby project that had brought us all together, called Tropicraft.
Over the course of our first 48-hour charity livestream we ended up raising $10,155. The success of that event blew us away and taught us the power of games in bringing people together. Since then we have hosted 9 events and raised over $320,000 USD in total for different causes all over the world.
Why Love Tropics Chose EVA and Pachamama Alliance
Each year, the Love Tropics organizers meticulously select an organization which focuses on people living in Earth’s tropics, empowers locals, promotes climate justice, and supports a cause which may be new or educational to our audience.
This year, our hearts called us to the cause of returning Indigenous land to Indigenous communities and peoples—to those who are best suited to care for that land and treat it as a precious entity, not a commodity to neglect, abuse, and abandon.
We searched all over for an organization that fit our criteria and cause and whose ethos matched our own. This search led us to the origin story of Pachamama Alliance, which spoke of the calling from the Achuar people to find likeminded organizations and people from the North to join them in their cause.
Thus began the partnership between Love Tropics and Pachamama Alliance, with a joyful realization of a shared mission with the Achuar people: To change the dream of the modern world.
Empowering the Next Generation of Amazonian Leaders
Driven by that dream, the Love Tropics team and our donors are so happy to have manifested the opportunity for 7 Amazonian youth, selected by their peers, to attend EVA. Through this program, these inspiring young leaders will emerge prepared, armed with knowledge and ancient wisdom, to support their communities and become leaders in the mission to change the dream of the modern world. This program strengthens a lineage of forest guardians whose leadership the world urgently needs.
We also had the fantastic opportunity to speak with Atossa Soltani, Global Director of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, during this year’s event. You can watch that segment here.
A Worldwide Community United Through Play
The Love Tropics organizer team spans the United States, Canada, the UK, Sweden, and Australia, with additional volunteers spread across the globe. Though many of us have never met in person, we are united in spirit; a spirit that mirrors Pachamama Alliance’s work uniting people across continents to protect the Amazon and shift cultural narratives toward one that honors life.
These days, we pour thousands of collective hours of care into each event, building out a custom virtual space, minigames, and educational content to inspire and entertain for the full 48 hours. And despite our desire, it’s unlikely any of us in the Love Tropics team or any of the amazing people who donated during this year’s event will have the opportunity to meet these students - but we don’t need to meet them to know that we are close in spirit. To all who joined us this year, from all of us in the Love Tropics team, thank you. Together, we have made for us the Earth an inhabited garden - and we can feel in our hearts that our collective garden has grown.
