The Australian National Botanic Gardens has achieved a major milestone in its 45th anniversary year after receiving some very good news on Thursday.
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The gardens were granted eco certification from Ecotourism Australia making them only the second botanic gardens in the country to receive this recognition.
"There's a bit of a process where you have to apply," Miranda Schooneveldt from Parks Australia said.
"The application is very involved and not every business is successful. The program is the only one of its type in the world to globally recognise an eco-tourism destination."
The gardens were granted the certification after demonstrating excellence in a number of areas including conservation, business management, energy use, cultural sensitivity and environmental management such as recycling.
"It's the diversity of experiences we can provide for visitors in nature based experiences," general manager of the gardens Peter Byron said.
"Plus we have a very sustainable approach to how we manage the gardens. We use lake water for irrigation, electric vehicles for internal maintenance, we mulch prunings from the gardens.
"So I think it's really the whole approach we've taken in running the gardens that made the application a success."
The gardens will go ahead with their 20-year master plan vision released in January which will include a conservatory installation, a state-of-the-art seedbank and a brand new cafe and visitors centre.
The plan focuses on enhancing their visitors' experience of the gardens.
"It's a great milestone to reach in our 45th anniversary year," Mr Byron said.
"This is a really big deal for the gardens and for Canberra. We can really use this certification to attract international visitors who are looking for nature-based experiences that are authentic, educational and sustainable."
The staff and the Friends of the Gardens plan to celebrate the nationally recognisable accreditation that their hard work and dedication has achieved with a small get-together.
"It's quite a bit of work going through the application process and you're under a lot of scrutiny and auditing from Eco Tourism Australia," said Mr Byron.
"So we're having a bit of a get-together with the Friends of the Gardens to pat ourselves on the back."
The Australian National Botanic Gardens are holding their popular series of outdoor cinema showings Sunset Cinema on Saturday to give visitors the opportunity to experience the beauty of the gardens themselves.
