eniz<lThe iconic Blue Flag is one of the world’s most recognised voluntary awards for beaches, marinas, and sustainable boating tourism operators. In order to qualify for the Blue Flag, a series of stringent environmental, educational, safety, and accessibility criteria must be met and maintained.
Central to the ideals of the Blue Flag programme is the aim of connecting the public with their surroundings and encouraging them to learn more about their environment. As such, environmental education activities must be offered and promoted in addition to a permanent display of information relevant to the site in terms of biodiversity, ecosystems and environmental phenomena.
E d u c a t i o n: Central to the ideals of the Blue Flag programme is the aim of connecting the public with their surroundings and encouraging them to learn more about their environment.
I n f o r m a t i o n: Informing visitors about the site they are visiting is an essential part of the Blue Flag programme. This allows people to easily navigate the area and to learn a little more about the indigenous flora and fauna.
M o n i t o r i n g: Stringent criteria and regular spot checks help to encourage compliance of Blue Flag sites, which are also subject to comprehensive control visits.
M a n a g e m e n t: Appropriate local organisations are selected to implement and enforce the necessary criteria with a view to ensuring a consistency of the standards which make the Blue Flag award so trustworthy and valuable.
S a f e t y: Owners/operators of Blue Flag sites must agree to ensure that safety measures are in place at all times, so that the staff, public and the environment remain safe.
Blue Flag Programme is owned and run by the independent non-profit organisation Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). One national FEE member is responsible for the implementation of programme, which is TURCEV (Foundation for Environmental Education in Turkey) in Turkey. National website of TURCEV is www.turcev.org.tr .
The Blue Flag works towards sustainable development at beaches/marinas through strict criteria dealing with water quality, environmental education and information, environmental management, and safety and other services. Having reached more than 33 years of experience, Blue Flag introduces new criteria acoording to new developments.
The Blue Flag Programme includes environmental education and information for the public, decision makers and tourism operators.
Important Note: When owners/operators of beaches, marinas and boats are awarded the right to display the Blue Flag, it is because they have satisfied FEE that they complied at the time of award with a number of stringent environmental, educational, safety and accessibility criteria. Following the award, the owners/operators accept full responsibility to ensure continued compliance with all of these criteria. While FEE may carry out checks of sites from time to time, neither FEE, nor any of its officers, members, or jury members accept any responsibility to any person in the event of any noncompliance.