The provincial government is closing the northern Vancouver Island site peace-lovers from around the globe were expected to descend upon this weekend to prevent their month-long movement from taking place.

BC Parks announced it will shut down Raft Cove Provincial Park in response to concerns about the World Rainbow Gathering of Tribes, a travelling peace movement which began Aug. 7 and was supposed to take place until Sept. 6 in the small regional park.

Search and rescue crews and government officials have said they’re concerned the staggering number of visitors would overwhelm the park’s resources, and that most would be ill-prepared for the harsh, rugged West Coast environment.

“The West Coast is about as extreme as it gets when it comes to surviving and camping,” said Grant Cromer of Campbell River Search and Rescue. “So certainly [there’s] a big concern for somebody with little to no experience hiking along that trail, spending nights out with lower temperatures, not being able to have fires.”

Local in nearby Port Hardy have also said they fear such a large gathering would wreak havoc on the area’s ecosystem.

Raft Cove holds about 100 people, and as of Saturday afternoon, the Ministry Environment said there were only about 90 campers there -- but up to 2,000 were expected to converge on the park over the weekend.

BC Parks closed the park at around noon Saturday and said the closure will last until further notice.

The provincial agency said it made the decision after talking to other groups including the island’s health authority, the provincial archaeology branch and First Nations.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Environment said now that the park has been closed, visitors will be asked to voluntarily leave – and they’ll monitor and re-assess the situation if that doesn’t happen.

Posts on the Rainbow Gathering’s Facebook page indicated the gathering might have been moved to B.C.’s Kootenays, but in a reply to a comment Friday the page’s owner said “you can't find the directions to a World Rainbow Gathering in the Kootenays because there is none…the Gathering is in fact happening at Raft Cove right now.”

The group, founded in 1970, aims to support “protection, preservation and restoration of natural habitats and fostering World Peace which is essential towards achieving the goals of a healthy and harmonious world,” according to its Facebook page.

The camp-in movement travels around the world and holds multiple events each year.