PLANET EARTH, THE FUTURE

Planet Earth revealed a stunning variety of new wildlife behaviour and wilderness areas around the globe. Using the latest available techniques and technology, it has shown us our world as we've never seen it before. But as the series end, a huge question arises: how much of that world will ever be seen again?

Planet Earth, The Future asks the experts to provide an answer. Using footage from Planet Earth and contributions from film-makers, conservationists and some of the 21st Century's most eminent theologians and scientists, the series analyses the planet's many environmental crises and conservation issues and takes a cool look at what their solutions, if any, might be.

Episode 1: Saving Species

The sixth extinction phase - are we really at such a crisis point? Planet Earth revealed the Mongolian gazelle on the last great unseen migration spectacle in Asia. Why didn't they film the Saiga Antelope, that was filmed just 15 years ago as a spectacle for another series? The answer is because the Saiga is now on the brink of extinction. Martyn Colbeck and Saiga antelope expert Dr. Milner-Gulland tell us why. We also discover why there is a problem in the Simien Highlands in Ethiopia, where people have encroached up the mountains forces up species to the remaining peaks. The Polar bears that featured in Planet Earth trying to kill a walrus in the Canadian Arctic are hungry because the warmer climate is reducing the ice floes on which the bears used to hunt seals.

But is there really a problem? As Ahmed Djoghlaf, Exectuive Secretary of the United Nations group on biological Diversity, tells us the rate of extinctions, the Head of the IUCN argues that we have no idea how many species there really are. Professor Edward Wilson's contribution is on the importance of the insects.

How do we choose which species we want? Why should we bother to save a highly endangered species? Why should we save the Panda? We hear from the world's leading experts.

Episode 2: Into the Wilderness

What is wilderness and how much is left? Russell Mittermeier of Conservation International assures us that, by his definition, wilderness still covers 40% of the planet. But is there enough to provide landscapes for animals such as the elephants that featured in Planet Earth?

How much wilderness do we need, and how fast is it disappearing? The forests of Bialowieza, the last remaining forest of Europe, are fast disappearing. What is threatening them? We discuss the issue of human population size, and discover in the Gobi desert and the Arctic tundra that just a few people, or a few corporations, can have an enormous impact.

But why is wilderness important? What does it do for us? James Lovelock and Jonathan Porritt tell us. Even where there are no people, much wilderness is changing because of climate change. How do we ensure own own survival and keep wilderness areas? It seems to have to include humans in the picture.

Episode 3: Living Together

Right now, conservation is going through a major re-think and re-assessment of what is the right way forward, bearing in mind the expanding human population.

This film opens with dramatic footage of humpback whales - a success story for conservation. The 'Save the Panda' 'Save the  World' and 'Save the Rainforest' campaigns are still very familiar too, but have we got anywhere?

The programmer also look back to past mistakes. For example, BBC archive footage of Nairobi National Park in 1977 illustrates how people were excluded - the fortress mentality. various ways to involve people are considered. Behind some of the Planet Earth stars, like the snow leopard, are attempts to bring income to the local people through the wildlife.

How can conservation fit into a world driven by economics and development? At what point does eco-tourism cross the boundary of real benefit to the wildlife?

This episode looks at the role of religions in promoting a moral and ethical approach to our world, and asks the Archbishop of Canterbury whether we should be re-thinking our whole attitude to our place in the natural world.

Planet Earth is produced by Alastair Fothergill, executive producer for the BBC's Natural History Unit.