The Corbett Foundation turns to NFTs in drive to save Bengal tigers

Non-profit foundation The Corbett Foundation (TCF) has unveiled its "Generative NFTs to Regenerate our Tigers" campaign, tapping on NFTs to raise awareness for the foundation's commitment to helping Bengal tigers roam free across greater areas of land. This will also allow the Bengal tigers to repopulate and regenerate their numbers, in turn conserving the vast biodiversity of the nature reserves they inhabit.

Done in collaboration with BBDO as well as artist radarboy3000, TCF created a limited series of 2,967 NFTs based on real unique tiger stripes. Inspired by the photographs of real tigers provided by TCF, radarboy3000 created a generative algorithm with potentially hundreds of thousands of variations but, limited the mint to 2,967 unique pieces of NFT artwork, where each NFT represented each royal Bengal tiger left in India.

According to TCF, generative art is a term that stands for pieces of art that have gone through a generation process by an autonomous system resulting in a completed work of art. This generative art is considered a collaboration between an artist and an autonomous system, added TCF. All of the proceeds earned from the NFT sale would be donated to TCF. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to TCF and BBDO for additional information regarding the campaign. 

"(Re) generative tigers uses an algorithm which generates unique works of art by taking data from photos of actual surviving tigers in the wild”, said radarboy3000. “Just like each tiger's stripes are unique, so is each artwork. Tigers in captivity can never be reintroduced to the wild. So, it’s imperative we protect them and preserve their habitat. I designed the work to be meditative, slowly evolving and revealing - signifying what is broken and lost, but also as a strong message of hope: that these beautiful animals will re-generate in numbers and be allowed to roam freely," he explained. 

Meanwhile, TCF's director, Kedar Gore said the natural world constantly faces evolving threats, and amongst the vast number of species facing extinction includes the five species of tigers left. With 2022 being known as the Year of the Tiger, various brands have also stepped in to roll out campaign initiatives or donate funds to various animal organisations. Gucci, for example, released a campaign, titled "Gucci Tiger" for one of its collections. According to the luxury fashion house, it has been supporting wildlife through the Lion’s Share Fund, dedicated to protecting endangered species since February 2020.

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