Green Coast Award – enhancing unspoilt rural beaches

The Green Coast Award is for beaches in Wales and Ireland which meet EC bathing water quality standards and provide a natural, unspoilt environment, meaning that “the special character of such a beach may not be compatible with the level of infrastructure and intensive management generally associated with more urban, traditional seaside resort beaches”.

The Green Coast Award fills a gap left by the Blue Flag Programme. Like the Blue Flag, the Green Coast Award has clear objectives and community involvement in coastal management.

The Green Coast Award is part of the Clean Coasts project, which includes Coastcare, which offers volunteers involvement in environmental preservation and improvement of coastlines.

The Clean Coasts project is managed by Keep Wales Tidy and An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland. It is partly funded by EU Interreg IIIA. The introduction of the Green Coast Award was sponsored by the Green Sea Partnership.

The Green Sea Partnership – Partneriaeth Môr Glas – doesn’t appear to have an official webpage. It was set up in 1996 as an informal partnership of over 40 public, private and voluntary organisations committed to safeguarding and enhancing the coastal environment of Wales.

This entry is part of the Infomancy Eco-Symbols Series.