Did you come out and see our Naturebus final yr?
On this yr of unhealthy information, it’s good to have the ability to rejoice a hopeful milestone—whereas acknowledging that hope is only a fuse that wants the spark of motion. We nonetheless have heaps to do earlier than we will really rejoice this milestone.
Final December, on the fifteenth Convention of the Events to the UN Conference on Organic Range (“COP15”), delegates signed the Kunming-Montreal Settlement. Beneath this settlement, governments dedicated to conserving no less than 30 % of land and ocean by 2030 and respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples—together with, particularly, recognizing the contributions of Indigenous territories in direction of the “30×30” objective. Canada’s Minister of the Surroundings Steven Guilbeault promised to ship a nationwide biodiversity technique and motion (NBSAP) to fulfill these objectives.
It was an enormous step in the precise route. And it solely occurred as a result of odd individuals got here collectively to make their voices heard.
“It was a shouting-from-the-rooftops second.”
The problem
Nature lovers knew that quite a bit was at stake in Montreal. The clock was ticking on our biodiversity commitments: the federal government had pledged to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030—simply eight years away (seven, now). COP15 was a vital alternative for Canadians to indicate their leaders that we wanted actual motion on this promise. Within the phrases of Hannah Dean, Director of Organizing at Nature Canada, it was a “shouting-from-the-rooftops second.” And we knew that loads of Canadians would wish to shout together with Nature Canada. How might we seize all that resolve and convey it to decision-makers at COP15?
That’s once we got here up with the thought for a form of travelling roadshow… one with a lot of color and neighborhood.
Our plan was for 3 “NatureBuses” to journey throughout the nation, gathering paintings and messages of hope from odd Canadians on the theme of defending nature. Our community of native teams, the Nature Community, would arrange inspiring bus-stop occasions throughout the nation—the whole lot from artwork workshops to polar bear swims to shoreline cleanups.
On the finish, the buses would converge on Montreal and ship all of the messages of hope to Prime Minister Trudeau, simply as NatureCOP was getting underway.
And, because of our companions and members, the NatureBus tour did certainly ship. 1000’s of messages in assist of nature had been introduced to Prime Minister Trudeau who, in his opening tackle to the convention delegates, quoted from two of them.
