Gloucester Tops circuit walk in the Barrington Tops National Park – Image: Barrington Coast, NSW
Another region in Australia has achieved ECO Destination Certification, according to Ecotourism Australia. This achievement for the Barrington Coast region north of Sydney was highlighting the destination’s dedication to protecting their environment, underscored the MidCoast Council in an announcement.
Located on the lower mid-north coast of New South Wales, three hours north of Sydney, the Barrington Coast is a haven for nature lovers and home to incredible landscapes such as the World Heritage-listed Gondwana Rainforests of the Barrington Tops and the Ramsar Convention designated wetland of international importance the Myall Lakes.
This milestone makes the Barrington Coast the fifth destination in New South Wales and the 13th in Australia to receive this distinguished recognition.
“We’re incredibly excited to welcome the Barrington Coast region as our newest certified ECO Destination,” said Ecotourism Australia CEO, Elissa Keenan.
“Led by the wonderful team at MidCoast Council, this achievement highlights the region’s commitment to adhering to global best practice sustainable tourism. Alongside achieving ECO Destination Certification, the region has actively supported local operators to achieve business certification or to complete our pre-certification benchmarking tool, the Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard,” Keenan said.
Support for the certification program was also provided from WWF-Australia’s Australian Wildlife and Nature Recovery Fund. Following the Black Summer bushfires, WWF-Australia partnered with Ecotourism Australia to help 11 bushfire-affected regions build back better through ecotourism.
“Our ECO Destination Certification with Ecotourism Australia, highlights our continued commitment and progress towards a more sustainable tourism industry, while creating more attractive experiences for locals and visitors” said Mayor Claire Ponton.
MidCoast Council has implemented a wide range of sustainability initiatives including developing a Climate Action Strategy to achieve Net Zero targets by 2040, installing over 200kW of solar panels across 10 public buildings, holding water resilience workshops, and replacing printed visitor information booklets with QR codes that link to interactive online guides.
ECO Destination Certification at the Ecotourism level assesses a region on more than 90 criteria across eight sections including Destination Management, Environment and Climate, Culture and Tradition, and Social Wellbeing.
By achieving ECO Destination Certification, the Barrington Coast joins a growing network of certified destinations in New South Wales – Bellingen Shire, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Coffs Harbour. Through Ecotourism Australia’s partnership with Green Destinations, Barrington Coast is also now part of a distinguished group of 160 certified destinations globally. (NAN/ETA 13-02-25)
About the Barrington Coast region
The Barrington Coast has 191km of pristine coastline, 58 national parks, nature reserves and conservation areas; 63 state forests; 8 designated Aboriginal Places and 38 rivers. At our highest point we have World Heritage protected Gondwana rainforest wilderness (Barrington Tops) with regular snowfall events… we’re the only location in the state where you can make a snowman and a sandcastle on the same day without leaving the destination. We also have the state’s largest coastal lake system (Myall Lakes National Park) that’s protected by the Ramsar Convention for wetlands of international importance. And we’re home to the state’s tallest single-drop waterfall (Ellenborough Falls) plus the only double delta system in Australia (Manning River).
Discover more about the Barrington Coast.
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