With species extinction now occurring at a faster rate than at any time in Earth's history, effective awareness raising and education programmes are ever more vital. Powerful wildlife imagery is an emotive and effective means of building environmental awareness and engagement, and quick and easy access to this imagery is essential in the digital mass communications society we live in today.

However, until now, this valuable imagery has been scattered throughout the world, in a wide variety of private, commercial and specialist collections, with no centralised collection, restricted public access, limited educational use, and no co-ordinated strategy for its long term preservation.

ARKive is now putting that right, gathering together the very best films and photographs of the world's species into one centralised digital library, to create a unique audio-visual record of life on Earth. Preserved and maintained for future generations, ARKive is making this key resource accessible to all, from scientists and conservationists to the general public and school children, via its award-winning website - http://www.arkive.org