Our Changing Planet

Editorial

The BBC West region started on 1st September 1957 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One West.

BBC One West HD

Documentaries

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

An ambitious seven-year series documenting six of the planet's most threatened ecosystems.

Seven years. Six habitats. One planet. Charting our world's most threatened ecosystems - a unique global portrait of extraordinary change and the hope of groundbreaking solutions.

Series 1

BBC Two

The BBC East region started on 1st May 1959 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One East.

BBC One East

Simulcast of BBC One Wales in high definition. From 29/01/2013

BBC One Wales HD

BBC One London

London

BBC Northern Ireland region started on 19th April 1955 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One Northern Ireland.

BBC One Northern Ireland

BBC One Cambridgeshire

BBC One region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

BBC One East Midlands

The BBC South region started on 5th January 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South.

BBC One South

The BBC North East & Cumbria region started in 1959 (tbc) as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One North East & Cumbria.

BBC One North East & Cumbria

Formerly part of a wider BBC One South East region. Separated as BBC One London 2001-09-03 following reorganisation of the South East region.

BBC One London HD

BBC One Scotland

Scotland

BBC One Yorks & Lincs HD

BBC One East Midlands HD

BBC One North West

BBC One Oxfordshire

BBC One North West HD

BBC One North East & Cumbria HD

BBC One Cambridgeshire HD

BBC One West Midlands

Simulcast of network BBC One in high definition. From 03/11/2010

BBC One HD

BBC One Yorkshire

BBC One Channel Islands HD

BBC One West Midlands HD

BBC One East HD

The BBC South West region started on 20th April 1961 as part of the BBC Television Service, before becoming BBC One South West.

BBC One South West

BBC One Yorkshire HD

Formerly part of a wider BBC One South East region that included London and part of the South region. Separated from BBC One London 2001-09-03 following reorganisation of the South East region.

BBC One South East

BBC One South East HD

BBC One West

BBC One South HD

BBC One South West HD

Simulcast of BBC One Scotland in high definition. From 14/01/2013

BBC One Scotland HD

BBC One Wales

Wales

BBC One Channel Islands

Simulcast of BBC One Northern Ireland in high definition. From 24/10/2012

BBC One Northern Ireland HD

BBC One Yorks & Lincs

BBC One Oxfordshire HD

BBC Two England

England

Simulcast of network BBC Two in high definition.

BBC Two HD

Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

BBC Two Wales

BBC Two Northern Ireland

Simulcast of BBC Two Northern Ireland in high definition

BBC Two Northern Ireland HD

Simulcast of BBC Two Wales in high definition

BBC Two Wales HD

Steve Backshall

Chris Packham

Ella Al-Shamahi

Laura Flegg

Olive King

Richard Max

Charlotte Jones

Rosemary Edwards

Our Changing Planet: Series 1: Episode 1

Episode 1

BBC One - Our Changing Planet, Series 1, Episode 1

Steve Backshall, Chris Packham and Ella Al-Shamahi visit endangered ecosystems.

Steve Backshall, Chris Packham and Ella Al-Shamahi visit the Maldives, Iceland and Cambodia, charting the fight to save the planet’s most endangered ecosystems.

The launch of the BBC’s ambitious seven-year natural history project, in which six presenters visit six of the planet's most threatened ecosystems to meet the people fighting to restore the Earth’s delicate balance.

In this first episode, Steve Backshall, Chris Packham and Ella Al-Shamahi visit the Maldives, Iceland and Cambodia.

Steve Backshall travels to the Maldives, an area facing significant challenges because of climate change. Warming seas and the acidification of the oceans have led to coral bleaching on a massive scale, destroying the surrounding ecosystem. The biodiversity of the reefs provides food security, income and other benefits to the people of the Maldives, and Steve finds that they are working hard to try to stem the tide of destruction. He also goes diving off the reefs to check on a group of manta rays, whose presence offers a clear indication of the health of the reef.

In Iceland, Chris Packham learns more about the effects of global warming. Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at more than twice the annual global average. Snow and ice are melting at an increasing rate, which contributes to rising sea levels and is likely to provoke extreme temperature events beyond the Arctic. As one of the eight Arctic States, Iceland is being dramatically affected by rising temperatures, with the lives and livelihoods of many islanders being threatened. Chris also discovers that melting sea ice is opening the Arctic to navigation. These seas are home to many species of whales, so Chris joins a team of young scientists monitoring the impact of increased commercial shipping on humpback whales.

On the other side of the world, Ella Al-Shamahi visits Cambodia in Southeast Asia, an area experiencing increasing economic growth. However, growth is putting massive pressure on natural resources, with ever-expanding cities and devastating overexploitation of the natural world. The Mekong river is the lifeblood of this region, but whole sections of it are under pressure. Ella meets a fishing community living on the Tonle Sap lake. The lake used to offer rich fishing grounds for local communities, but the construction of many dams along the wider Mekong is now threatening to destroy the biodiversity of this once abundant lake.

The building of new roads has given poachers easier access to forests, and the illegal wildlife trade is big international business. Ella visits a project in Cambodia that rescues and rehabilitates illegally trafficked wildlife, including pangolins, the most trafficked mammal on Earth.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Our Changing Planet

Series 1

Episode 1

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC One West HD

About BBC One