As extinction rates rise, these images and recordings may soon be all we have left of many species. However these records are scattered throughout a variety of commercial, specialist and private collections. There are no safeguards for their long-term preservation, no centrally-held catalogue or database about them, much is at risk of loss and dispersal and is inaccessible and unavailable to the general public. So ARKive will be a permanent, centralised digital storehouse of natural history images and sounds - available to everyone via the Internet.