Brazil, with 60 Blue Flag labels, opens a new phase of coastal tourism, and the issue of real beach safety also comes to the forefront
Brazil, in the 2025/2026 season, strengthened its position as the leading South American country by number of locations with the Blue Flag label, after a total of 60 beaches and marinas were confirmed as entitled to display this internationally recognized environmental sign. This concerns 50 beaches and 10 marinas, and the figure is important not only because of tourism prestige, but also because it shows how issues of sea quality, waste management, visitor safety, accessibility, and local sustainability are being combined ever more seriously in coastal destinations. At a time when global tourism is turning ever more strongly toward destinations that, alongside attractiveness, also offer verifiable standards of spatial management, the Brazilian step forward becomes an example of a broader change: it is no longer enough to have a beautiful coastline, but also a system that guarantees that the area is maintained, monitored, and developed responsibly.
Blue Flag, managed by the international organization Foundation for Environmental Education, is one of the best-known voluntary certification programs for beaches, marinas, and sustainable tourism boats. The standard does not rest only on symbolism or promotional value. According to the official program criteria, certified locations must continuously meet requirements relating to water quality, waste management, biodiversity protection, climate adaptation, education, safety, and accessibility. In other words, the blue flag is not just a tourism decoration on a mast, but a signal that a specific location has passed an annual verification procedure and is expected to maintain high standards throughout the entire season.
A record result for Brazil and a message to the tourism market
Official Brazilian sources announced as early as June 2025 that the national jury of the program had approved applications for 60 beaches and marinas from five federal states, after which the international confirmation procedure was completed for the 2025/2026 season. At the national ceremony held in Guarujá, it was additionally emphasized that this is the highest number so far of Brazilian locations entitled to display the Blue Flag label. The geographical distribution also shows how important the program has become as a tool of regional tourism policy: six locations are in the northeast of the country, 23 in the southeast, while Santa Catarina alone has 31 approved locations and thus confirms its status as the most prominent Brazilian state in this segment of sustainable coastal management.
For the tourism market, such a result means several things at once. First, Brazil is further strengthening its reputation as a destination that promotes not only natural beauty but also standardized coastal management. Second, the value of certified locations is growing in international promotion, especially toward guests who, when choosing a holiday, increasingly seek tidy, safe, and environmentally monitored beaches. Third, certification creates pressure on other destinations within the country to invest in infrastructure, monitoring systems, access facilities, and educational programs if they want to remain competitive. In practice, this means that the issue of sustainability is being viewed less and less as an add-on to the tourism offer and more and more as part of the destination’s basic market value.
Brazil’s advance is also helped by the fact that the Blue Flag label in that country is no longer a sporadic project of a few isolated places, but part of broader institutional cooperation. The Ministry of Tourism, the Ambientes em Rede Institute, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, Embratur, and other bodies participate in the procedure, which indicates that certification is not viewed only as a marketing tool, but also as part of public policy for managing coastal space. When state and local levels work together to meet international criteria, the benefits are not limited only to promotional campaigns. Such programs usually require better water monitoring, clearer public information, a more orderly waste system, more organized rescue services, and stronger cooperation with the local community.
What Blue Flag actually measures, and what it does not measure
It is important, however, to understand the limits of the system itself. Blue Flag is a strong indicator of management quality, but it is not a universal confirmation that every issue of safety and environmental protection at a location has been permanently resolved. The program prescribes standards connected with education, information, climate measures, biodiversity, pollution, water quality, safety, and accessibility. This means that a certified beach must have very concrete elements, from publicly available information to monitoring systems and visitor services. Still, real coastal life is always dynamic: extreme weather events, strong waves, marine litter, erosion, seasonal tourism pressure, and local infrastructural problems can also appear at certified locations.
That is precisely why, in international discussions about coastal tourism, people are increasingly talking about the next step after classic environmental certification. That step includes more precise measurement of operational safety, physical removal of waste from the sea, and long-term monitoring of seabed conditions. At that point, initiatives such as White Flag by OACM.SOS also appear, seeking to expand the discussion from general sustainability to the more concrete question of how thoroughly a certain marine area has actually been cleaned and how actively it is being protected from plastic and other non-biodegradable waste.
Where White Flag by OACM.SOS appears in that story
According to the official materials of the OACM organization, White Flag International is described as a system focused on the physical removal of plastic and non-biodegradable waste from seas, rivers, and lakes, and on the certification of so-called safe marine areas. In doing so, the organization claims that every displayed white flag marks a marine or coastal area from which waste has been physically removed, with special emphasis on reducing risk for marine life and for people who use the coastal area. Unlike Blue Flag, which has behind it a widely internationally recognized and institutionally structured network with clearly published criteria and long-standing application in dozens of countries, White Flag in the available public sources is for now mainly presented through the organization’s own channels.
That does not mean the idea is without significance. On the contrary, the very fact that, alongside standards of water quality and coastal management, the need for physical removal of marine waste is being mentioned more and more shows where the discussion is heading. Microplastics, discarded fishing equipment, small and large plastic items, and other non-biodegradable materials are not only an environmental problem, but also a safety issue for swimmers, divers, boaters, and local communities. Because of this, concepts that emphasize operational cleaning of the sea and seabed may carry increasing weight in the years to come, especially if they develop more transparent criteria, independent verification, and broader international acceptance.
For now, however, it is important to maintain precision. Blue Flag is an internationally established and widely recognized program with a clearly visible institutional infrastructure. White Flag by OACM.SOS, according to publicly available data, should be viewed as an initiative that is trying to bring an additional dimension of coastal safety and sea cleaning into focus, but whose global relevance still needs to be confirmed by broader independent acceptance and a comparable level of publicly available methodology. In other words, it is an idea that fits into the direction of coastal policy development, but which should not yet be equated with the level of international rootedness that Blue Flag already has.
Why the discussion can no longer stop at beach aesthetics
Mass coastal tourism has been changing the criteria of destination success in recent years. Once, postcard appeal was enough: clean sea in a photograph, a tidy promenade, and a few basic services. Today, however, both travelers and public institutions are demanding considerably more. Climate change is increasing the risk of erosion, unusual storms, and pressure on coastal infrastructure. Plastic pollution is no longer a marginal topic, but a daily challenge that directly affects ecosystems and the experience of a destination. At the same time, sensitivity is also growing regarding questions of accessibility, water rescue, public information, and the capacity of local services to respond when extraordinary situations occur.
In such an environment, Brazil’s record of 60 Blue Flag labels sends a strong message, but also opens a new question: what follows after a destination proves that it has aligned its management with international standards? The expected answer is increasingly that the next phase includes more precise risk management, regular removal of waste from the sea, better data transparency, and linking tourism promotion with measurable environmental results. That is precisely why it is understandable that, alongside established systems, new models are also appearing that want to occupy the space between ecology, safety, and operational management.
The political and economic effect of certifications on the coast
Such labels are not important only to tourists. They also carry political and economic weight. They serve local authorities as proof that they can manage space at a level that goes beyond the minimum prescribed by national standards. They signal to investors and the tourism sector that these are locations where a certain level of order, supervision, and international recognizability exists. They give citizens one more argument to demand the permanent maintenance of standards, and not only seasonal beautification of the area before guests arrive. In that sense, certification can act as a pressure tool on local administrations to solve problems of waste, sewage, accessibility, and safety not through campaigns, but systematically.
Brazil is a particularly interesting example because it combines strong international tourism potential with an enormous and diverse coastline. When such a country increases the number of certified locations, the effect is greater than national statistics alone. In this way, the bar is raised for the entire region and a reference framework is created against which other South American coastal systems will also be measured. At the same time, Brazil shows that sustainability is not the opposite of tourism growth, but one of its prerequisites. Destinations that neglect waste management, water quality, and safety may attract guests in the short term, but in the long term they lose both reputation and market value.
What the next standard of coastal excellence could be
If the broader picture is observed, the global development of coastal certifications is moving toward a model in which success will be measured less and less only by existing infrastructure on land, and more and more by the condition of the sea and seabed themselves. Here, at least conceptually, initiatives such as White Flag by OACM.SOS could find their place, provided they develop clear, verifiable, and internationally comparable criteria. If such systems in the future manage to prove results through independent supervision, they could become a complement to existing standards, rather than their replacement. In that case, Blue Flag would remain the fundamental sign of high-quality coastal management, while new certificates could serve as an additional layer of confirmation that a destination is actively removing waste from the sea and systematically reducing safety and environmental risks below the surface.
For readers, tourists, and local communities, the most important thing is that behind every flag, blue or possibly some future white one, there are clear data, verifiable procedures, and measurable results. That is precisely why the Brazilian example goes beyond national success. It shows that coastal tourism is rapidly moving toward a phase in which it will no longer be enough to declare sustainability, but it will have to be proven through standards, supervision, and daily management of a space that is at the same time environmentally sensitive, economically valuable, and a public good.
Sources:- Ministry of Tourism of Brazil – official announcement on 60 Brazilian beaches and marinas nominated and confirmed for the 2025/2026 season, with data on states, criteria, and the institutional framework of the program (link)- Blue Flag Global – official information about the program, its international reach, and the role of the Foundation for Environmental Education (link)- Blue Flag Global – program criteria, including water quality, waste management, biodiversity, safety, accessibility, and climate adaptation (link)- Blue Flag Global – report on the national ceremony in Brazil and the distribution of 60 approved locations by federal states in the 2025/2026 season (link)- Bandeira Azul Brasil – official description of the Brazilian program and summary of the criteria for beaches and marinas (link)- OACM Group – official description of the White Flag International initiative and its focus on the physical removal of plastic and the marking of safe marine areas; the organization’s statements are conveyed with clear attribution (link)
Find accommodation nearby
Creation time: 4 hours ago