"Over the past few decades a vast treasury of wildlife images has been steadily accumulating, yet no one has known its full extent - or its gaps - and no one has had a comprehensive way of gaining access to it. ARKive will put that right. It will become an invaluable tool for all concerned with the well-being of the natural world."

Sir David Attenborough

ARKive is the Noah's Ark for the Internet era - a unique global initiative, gathering together films and photographs of the world's species to create an enduring multi-media record of life on Earth, made available to scientists, conservationists, educators and the general public, via the award-winning ARKive website - www.arkive.org.  ARKive is working with Printree to bring these fabulous wildlife posters and wildlife art prints to the public to give pleasure and to raise awareness of nature and the environment.

Why is there a need for ARKive?

Films and photographs are an emotive, powerful and effective means of building environmental awareness – they can bring a scientific name to life, show what a species looks like and why it is special. As such, they are a valuable educational resource and conservation tool.

Continued habitat destruction and the rise in extinction rates also mean that for many species, posters, art prints, films, photographs and audio recordings may soon be all that remains. They are, therefore, important historical and scientific records of the species they depict.

What species are in ARKive?

It is ARKive's current aim to compile audio-visual records, where such media exists, for the 16,000-plus species currently threatened with extinction, according to the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Work is well underway on this task, with more species being continually added to ARKive.

ARKive has also created a ‘British Chapter’ profiling rare and protected British species, as well as some of the more common representatives of Britain's fauna and flora, producing one of the most comprehensive audio-visual records of Britain's natural history heritage.

Who is creating ARKive?

ARKive is a not-for-profit initiative of Wildscreen (www.wildscreen.org.uk), a UK-based charity, whose mission is ‘to promote the conservation of nature and public appreciation of biodiversity, through the power of wildlife imagery’.

Since 1982, Wildscreen has run the Wildscreen Festival, the world's largest and most prestigious wildlife film and television festival. Held in association with WWF-UK, it attracts over 600 delegates from more than 45 countries, and has been nicknamed the "Green Oscars". The Festival is held every two years in Bristol, recognised as the international centre of wildlife film-making, and the obvious home for ARKive’s headquarters.

Wildscreen’s patrons are:

HRH Prince Philip
Sir David Attenborough
Professor E. O. Wilson
Dr Sylvia Earle

The visionary behind ARKive was the late Christopher Parsons OBE, former Head of the BBC Natural History Unit, IMAX film producer, creator of Wildwalk at-Bristol and founder of Wildscreen.

For more about ARKive, please see: www.arkive.org

Click here for information about Printree (the operator of this print site).