WITH 17 of its beaches on the list released last week by the environmentalist organization, ‘Quercus’, Albufeira is once again the Portuguese council with the greatest number of beaches rated as ‘gold’ quality. In comparison with 2007, there are four more ‘gold’ quality beaches in Portugal, totalling 200 of the 508 bathing areas in the country. The Algarve alone, has 67 ‘gold’ beaches.

 The criteria used by the environmentalist organization to select the beaches are different from those applied by the European Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) to award the ‘blue flag’ to beaches and that’s the reason why, this year, there are more ‘gold’ quality beaches in Portugal than ‘blue flag’ beaches.

Some 197 beaches in Portugal will be flying blue flags this summer, a distinction that indicates they have met strict criteria relating to sustainable development at marinas and beaches.

 The Blue Flag recognizes sustainability in the areas of water quality, environmental education and information, environmental management, safety and other services.

There are 32 more beaches qualifying for the ‘blue flag’ in 2008 than in 2007.

The ‘Blue Flag’ programme is owned and run by the independent non-profit organization, Foundation for FEE.

To award beaches the ‘gold’ distinction, Quercus selected all the beaches where the water has been classified as ‘good’ over the ......