David Attenborough to front BBC's Extinction: The Facts

Sir David Attenborough is to present a one-hour BBC documentary looking at the fragile state of the natural world.

Extinction: The Facts follows a World Wildlife Fund report suggesting populations of animals, birds and fish have shrunk by 60% in four decades.

Factual commissioning controller Alison Kirkham said: "Our audience has a hunger to understand how these urgent environmental issues affect them."

Sir David praised Glastonbury festival in June for its environmental efforts.

The veteran star appeared on the Pyramid stage to congratulate the music event for going plastic free.

"There was one sequence in Blue Planet 2 which everyone seems to remember," he said. "It was one in which we showed what plastic has done to the creatures that live in the ocean. They have an extraordinary effect. And now, this great festival has gone plastic-free. That is more than a million bottles of water that have not been drunk by you at Glastonbury."

The BBC said sales in reusable coffee cups have reached unprecedented levels, but the film will ask if the public's gradually changing habits go far enough.

Extinction: the Facts will go "beyond our emotions to investigate what the extinction crisis means, not just for the planet but for every one of us. World-leading scientists will explore why species are disappearing at such an alarming rate and will ask what that means for humanity".

Earlier this year, Sir David presented a documentary for the BBC examining the facts about climate change.

A broadcast date for the new film is yet to be announced.