When the NatureBus makes a stop in Sackville this Sunday, it won’t be picking up passengers bound for the woods, but it will be picking up messages from Sackville and Tantramar residents calling for protections that will put an end to biodiversity loss. After it pulls out on Sunday at about 11:30 a.m., the Nature Bus is headed to the UN Convention of Biological Diversity COP15 in Montreal, also known as the Nature COP.

CHMA called up Claire Vezina of Nature NB to find out more about the Nature COP and what’s happening in Sackville this Sunday morning.

Every two years, the Nature COP gathers officials from around the world for discussions centred around the Convention on Biological Diversity, a 1992 international agreement accepted by 196 countries.

Like its COP counterparts focussed on managing the severity of climate change, there’s bad news to share about biodiversity at the Nature COP.

“The variety and quantity of life on this planet is declining,” says Claire Vezina. “There’s more than 1 million species facing extinction. And approximately two thirds of the world’s ecosystems are degraded or unsustainably used.”

There is always, of course, hope, and especially so for this meeting in Montreal.

“Those gathered there this year are expected to sign a new global agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss over the next decade,” says Vezina. “So this could mean some real action items and progress on this front, which is really exciting.”

Vezina says that over 100 countries including Canada have expressed support for an “ambitious response,” including targets such as protecting 30 per cent of the world’s oceans and lands by 2030, reducing the rate of extinction by 90 per cent, and stopping $500 billion in subsidies that harm nature.

“Canada’s government has committed to halting and reversing nature loss by 2030,” says Vezina, “but there’s no plan yet to achieve this goal. So groups like Nature NB and Nature Canada are looking for a plan of action.

Enter the NatureBus, or busses. Coming from both the east and west coast, Nature Busses are collecting messages of support to deliver to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Nature COP in Montreal on Dec. 7.

In Sackville, the bus will stop at the Visitor Information Centre right beside the Waterfowl Park from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 4.

“There’s going to be lots of fun activities there for people to partake in,” says Vezina, including a bird scavenger hunt, a photo booth, and some local speakers sharing stories and information about local projects. The town of Sackville is providing refreshments. There will also be a table set up for people to write letters, postcards, “or have kids draw a little drawing of support for this action,” says Vezina.

The idea is “to show how much Canadians really want to see this happen and are going to hold the Canadian government accountable to this agreement,” says Vezina.

“We would just love to see lots of people come out and help us celebrate nature,” says Vezina. “Sackville is a beautiful area for that. So, hopefully we have great weather and we see lots of people.”

Further information is available on Nature NB’s Facebook event.

Listen to the CHMA story below: