The Green Flag Award for Parks was awarded to 101 parks, gardens, grounds and wildlife sanctuaries around the country. The award benchmarks excellence in the management of green spaces which are open free to the public. 150 parks were awarded flags today around Europe, with Ireland leading the way.
The Green Flag Award is the international quality benchmark for the public green space sector - now operating in 17 countries around the world. Running for over 25 years, the programme uses eight key criteria headings, with an emphasis on environmental management, for assessments. Both a management framework for each site and an annual condition inspection is conducted through a network of qualified judges. Once again more Green Flag Awards have been secured by Irish Parks and Gardens than by any country, other than the UK where the scheme originated in 1996.
The Green Flag Community Award extends the Green Flag Award Scheme to volunteer-run community green space projects. The Green Heritage Site Accreditation is awarded to public green spaces of historical importance, that actively understand, manage, and promote their heritage which makes them unique.
The judging criteria also considers the fact that each park/green space will offer different kinds of facilities and will be managed and developed to varying opportunities and constraints. Innovation and the way facilities offered are tailored to the needs of the community will also be taken into account.
Through hard work, management, and planning, we have applied for and achieved the Green Flag award for the last three years. This year we at Tralee Bay Wetlands Eco & Activity Park achieved the overall winners of the Green Flag Pollinator Awards 2023/2024, which is jointly run by An Taisce Environmental Education and the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
Kate Chandler, the Community and Engagement Officer for the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, said "We were highly impressed with this application, which marks out Tralee Bay Wetlands as leaders not only in its category but across the board in this year’s Green Flag Pollinator Awards."
