Sir David Attenborough, Wildscreen’s Patron, has today announced the organisation’s latest project, a layer on Google Earth. The layer uses Google’s mapping technology to raise the profile of a selection of critically endangered and endangered species from Wildscreen’s ARKive project www.arkive.org.

Unveiling the new ARKive layer in Google Earth, Sir David Attenborough said: “Having spent over 50 years working in natural history broadcasting, I know how important technological innovation is for reaching new audiences. With the arrival of the Internet, there are now even more opportunities to bring the wonders of the natural world to a global audience. Google Earth is a really powerful way for Wildscreen to show the vital work it is doing with the ARKive project."

“Now, as well as viewing the thousands of films and photographs of the world's threatened species on the ARKive website, users can see exactly where in the world these species come from. It is visual, easy to understand, and another important step in helping us appreciate that without care and conservation many of our amazing plants and animals may soon be lost forever."

ARKive is a centralised collection of thousands of films and photographs of endangered species from around the globe, freely accessible online. Harriet Nimmo, Chief Executive from Wildscreen said, “ARKive contains a vast array of media donated from the world’s best wildlife photographers and filmmakers. The project uses stunning imagery to build awareness of the world’s species and Google Earth offers a new and exciting way to open up this free collection to new audiences.”

The Google Earth Outreach programme has helped give Wildscreen the resources to use Google Earth and Maps to show ARKive’s work to a mass audience. It means Wildscreen have been able to overlay written, audio and video information onto Google Earth in what is known as a layer and have their campaigns viewed by people across the globe.

The ARKive layer in Google Earth is an exciting new way for Wildscreen to be able to highlight their work. The ARKive layer can be found in the Global Awareness folder of the Featured Content section in Google Earth. To download Google Earth for free go to www.google.co.uk/earth.