Professional Rugby player David Pocock has joined conservation organisation Wild Ark, as a global ambassador. A passionate conservationist Pocock, together with his partner Emma, is committed to raising awareness on the plight of the world’s wild places.

“We are really excited to be partnering with Wild Ark because we believe in their global mission to help protect as much of the natural world as they can,” Pocock said. “We’ll be assisting them in raising awareness for their work and the opportunities others have to work alongside them in protecting and restoring areas of natural world.”

Wild Ark’s mission is to secure parts of identified green belts around the world as a way of protecting and conserving wildlife, as well as creating research and experience opportunities for people to reconnect with nature and to become inspired to protect it.

“Wild Ark is acquiring land in key nature hotspots and working to protect the rich biodiversity of these areas, whilst benefiting both local communities and the greater human ecosystem,” says Wild Ark co-founder Mark Hutchinson. “Ultimately, our aim is to reconnect people with nature through experiences and education.”

“Wild Ark is not just a business idea, it is a lifelong passion and working with inspirational individuals such as David and Emma, will help us inspire people to get involved.”

As part of their role Emma and David will be joining and leading upcoming Wild Ark expeditions to areas rich in biodiversity and conservation value around the world, the first of which will take in Southern Africa in 2017.

“We are really excited about the chance to be a part of a community like Wild Ark and the opportunity to showcase our journey to some of the world’s wildest places with others – we’ll be trying to share as much as we can via social media,” Pocock said.