NatureBus rolls into Desert Centre next week

By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle

Nature Canada’s NatureBus Tour will be making a stop at the Osoyoos Desert Centre on Tuesday Nov. 29 to raise awareness of the upcoming World Biodiversity Summit, also known as NatureCOP15, in Montreal.

Leading up to the Dec. 7-19 event, Canada’s oldest national nature conservation charity is in the midst of a nation-wide education and awareness campaign that will see the Desert Centre hosting an event for the visiting NatureBus. 

The organization is encouraging Canadians to submit messages, artwork, and letters demonstrating their excitement around this historic opportunity for action and to call on politicians to create a strong Global Framework and a National Action Plan to halt and reverse species loss.

Specifically Nature Canada is asking Canadians to call on their politicians to devise an action plan that:

• Protects 30 per cent of land, ocean, and freshwater by 2030
• Supports the conservation leadership of Indigenous Peoples 
• Invests in nature-based solutions to climate change
• Restores degraded ecosystems and ensures the recovery of threatened wildlife
•  Promotes urban biodiversity and equitable access for all people

“It’s got to be visible – this is a shouting from the rooftops moment,” says Hannah Dean who is leading Nature Canada’s mobilization efforts. “Canadians and the world need to know that this is a critical opportunity,” she added.

“The planet is staring down the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss and we need an action plan that’s commensurate with the scale of the problem,” says Graham Saul, Executive Director at Nature Canada. 

After years of negotiations, the 196 countries that will gather are expected to sign a new global agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss over the next decade – the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).

Biodiversity – the variety and quantity of life – is declining across the planet as approximately two thirds of the world’s ecosystems are degraded or unsustainably used. 

More than one million species face extinction with as many as 40 per cent of all animals and plants facing possible extinction by the end of this century, says Nature Canada.

“This is the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs,” it adds. 

This crisis is not just critical for nature, “collapsing biodiversity is destroying the natural systems human societies rely on for food, clean air and water, stable climates, and fuel. If nothing changes, damage to these natural services could cost over $2.7 trillion a year by 2030.”

Jayme Friedt, Managing Director of the Osoyoos Desert Centre explains that it is natural for the centre to be involved because, “we care about nature, and we want to protect it. It’s part of our mandate as an organization.”

Friedt explains: “We live in what people fondly call Canada’s “pocket desert” but ecologically speaking, it’s a semi-arid antelope-brush shrub-steppe grassland ecosystem.” 

Significantly it’s an ecosystem that is disappearing and it ranks fourth on Canada’s most critically endangered ecosystems list. Friedt also notes that this ecosystem is home to one of the highest concentrations of “at risk” species in Canada. 

“So of course we want to support Nature Canada’s initiative with the NatureBus, it’s important to us as well.”

 The NatureBus will be at the Osoyoos Desert Centre on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 10:30 a.m. Letters will be available for people to sign, or a template can be downloaded from the Centre’s website (desert.org), or people can write their own. 

Lauren Meads from the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC will also be participating in the event along with Pluto, the educational burrowing owl.

The hands-on interpretive centre will also be open for people to learn about the antelope brush ecosystem, but Friedt cautions the boardwalk will likely be closed due to snow cover. 

The Desert Centre will also be serving free, hot apple cider and gingerbread cookies but it asks that people bring their own mug as disposable cups will not be used. “And dress for the weather!” Friedt adds.