OUR CHANGING PLANET: CHRIS PACKHAM TO FRONT TWO-PART BBC SPECIAL

BBC One and iPlayer will show Our Changing Planet, the most ambitious environmental series the BBC has ever commissioned, plus the presenters have today been confirmed: Ade Adepitan, Steve Backshall, Liz Bonnin, Gordon Buchanan, Chris Packham and Ella al-Shamahi.

For seven years, the acclaimed filmmakers of BBC Studios Natural History Unit have been closely documenting six key habitats around the world in California, Iceland, the Maldives, Kenya, Cambodia and Brazil. And over seven years, BBC viewers will watch as these habitats - and the species living in them - undergo extraordinary change.

These locations are bellwethers for the health of our planet. As pressure on the natural world increases, what happens here will happen elsewhere. As the series goes on, we will witness rapidly unfolding ecological change and observe surprising new animal behaviours as species adapt to their shifting environments.

But this is also a story of hope. In each habitat, we will meet incredible conservationists who are working to turn the tide, preserve ecosystems and save species from extinction.

The series will launch in April 2022 as part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations and return every year for the following six years - making it the longest environmental project ever commissioned for television.

The next few years will see enormous change around the globe. The world’s population is set to increase by almost one billion, one million species could face extinction and our seas are on course to rise by up to 20cm, flooding land where 147 million people currently live. Our Changing Planet will be the definitive document of a critical moment for life on earth.

Our Changing Planet, a 2x60’ series for BBC One and BBC BBC iPlayer, is made by BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, co-produced by PBS.