Sir David Attenborough OM FRS is a broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has spanned more than 60 years. He is best known for writing and presenting the nine Life series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sir David’s long collaboration with the BBC Natural History Unit includes many groundbreaking nature documentaries: The Blue Planet (2001), the unit's first comprehensive series on marine life; Planet Earth (2006), the biggest nature documentary ever made for television and the first in high definition; Life (2009), focusing on extraordinary animal behaviour; The Frozen Planet (2011), a major series on the natural history of the polar regions, and the epic Africa (2013). More recently he has been collaborating with Sky, working on programmes for its 3D network including Flying Monsters 3D (2010); Kingdom of Plants 3D (2011); and Galapagos 3D (2012). His most recent project for the BBC is Blue Planet II, the long-awaited and spectacular follow-up to his earlier documentary.

A number of Sir David’s documentaries have adopted a more overtly environmentalist stance. In State of the Planet (2000), he assessed the impact of man's activities on the natural world, while The Truth about Climate Change (2006) examined global warming. He also contributed a programme highlighting the plight of endangered species to the BBC's Saving Planet Earth project in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Natural History Unit.

Sir David became a member of FFI in 1959 and has been a vice-president since July 1979. In that time he has offered enormous support to the organisation and attended numerous events, including our centenary celebrations in 2003 and our 110th anniversary event in 2013 during which he was interviewed by Radio 4’s Libby Purves on the challenges of conservation for the future.

Our publications

Cambodian Journal of Natural History

Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation