The Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area (MGCNHA) is proud to be a recipient of a 2019 Gulf Guardian Partnership Award for our nature-based tourism management plan. The Gulf Guardian award was created by The EPA’s Gulf of Mexico Program Partnership to recognize and honor the businesses, community groups, individuals, and agencies that are taking positive steps to keep the Gulf healthy, beautiful and productive.
Implementation of this plan satisfies a part of our mission to identify, preserve and promote the natural beauty of the six coastal counties. In 2015, community leaders approached the MGCNHA to establish the region as a premier nature-based tourist destination. Over a year-long community engagement process, we worked with Allen Engineering and Science to develop a set of goals that represented the interests of the stakeholders and the environment.
We are proud of the continued partnerships that has led to programs, such as MS Gulf Coast Blueways and Gulf Coast Outpost, and we look forward to working with all our partners to improve these and implement new projects as a result of this plan.
