The BBC has commissioned three major series on the natural world, as it fights to stop staff who make its popular natural history shows – including David Attenborough – being poached by deep-pocketed rival Netflix.

Perfect Planet, Frozen Planet II and Planet Earth III will be shown on the BBC over the coming years, building on the success of 2017’s enormously popular Blue Planet II, which helped push the issue of plastic recycling to the top of the political agenda.

The announcement comes after senior staff left the BBC’s Natural History Unit, lured to the commercial sector by the prospect of working for rapidly-growing streaming services, which can offer bigger budgets.

Attenborough, who is synonymous with the BBC’s natural history output, has already agreed to provide the voiceover for a forthcoming Netflix series named Our Planet which is due to be released in April and has involved 600 crew members filming for four years around the world.

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Despite its name, the programme, produced by former Natural History Unit staff, is not part of the official BBC Planet series and the similarity is thought to have angered the corporation’s bosses.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday, Attenborough said he would still work with the BBC but was enthused by Netflix’s global reach, with its programmes made available around the world at the same time: “It’s over 200 million people, it’s urgent, it’s instantaneous. And it stays there for months, so it can get an even bigger audience through word of mouth.”

The Blue Planet II creator, James Honeyborne, left the Natural History Unit last month after almost 30 years to found an independent production company, which instantly signed a deal with Netflix to produce nature and science series.

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The BBC’s finances could also be hit if Netflix dents the amount that other broadcasters around the world are willing to pay for the rights to show the BBC’s natural history output. The BBC’s global reputation for making high-quality series has helped boost returns at the corporation’s commercial arm, with Blue Planet sold to more than 233 different territories.

Of the new programmes, Perfect Planet shows how the forces of nature support life on Earth; Frozen Planet II is filmed in the Arctic and Antarctic; and Planet Earth III is described as “the most ambitious natural history landmark ever undertaken by the BBC”.

The BBC has also announced a spin-off series called Blue Planet UK, a week-long documentary series broadcast at the end of March on BBC One daytime, which will look at the stories behind Britain’s marine wildlife.

It is unclear whether Attenborough will be involved in the newly commissioned programmes. A BBC spokesperson said it was too early to sign up a presenter for the shows, which take years to produce and are due to be aired between 2020 and 2022, but if the 92-year-old wanted to take part then they would “love to have him”.