Twenty million sea turtles have been born in the last three decades in the Mexican Caribbean, thanks to the Riviera Maya-Tulum Sea Turtle Conservation Program, which was implemented in 13 turtle camps, according to reports from civil organizations and environmental authorities.
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The program, led by the organization Flora, Fauna y Cultura de México, with the participation of various public and private institutions, considers the conservation of sea turtles in one of the country’s most important tourist corridors a complete success.
The general director of the NGO, Guadalupe Quintana Pali, the initiative has not only managed to increase the number of hatchlings, but there are already records of adult turtles returning to nest on the beaches where they were born, a key indicator of population recovery.
🐢✨ Datos inéditos y grandes noticias para la conservación en #QuintanaRoo.
Hoy se presentaron los nuevos hallazgos y resultados acumulados del Programa de Conservación de Tortugas Marinas Riviera Maya–Tulum, uno de los proyectos ambientales más importantes de México pic.twitter.com/ibWIGfcVz0
— Playa Del Carmen 🌊 (@playaenmano) December 12, 2025
“About 30 years ago, these turtles began to be marked with a system of cutting a small piece of the plastron (lower part of the shell) and another from the carapace (upper part), and the tissues were exchanged. It is a living tissue that grew with the turtle and that now allows us to know in what year they were born,” she detailed.
She also highlighted that there is increasing awareness in society about the importance of preserving turtles.
According to program data, from 1996 to 2025, 303,586 nests were protected on 13 key nesting beaches, mainly of green turtles (Chelonia mydas), which represent 81% of the records, and loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta), with 18%.
There are also isolated cases of hawksbill and leatherback turtles nesting in this area.
Javier Carballar, director of the Institute of Biodiversity and Natural Protected Areas of Quintana Roo, explained that Mexico is home to six of the seven species of sea turtles that exist in the world, three of which regularly arrive on the coasts of the state, mainly in the area that includes the Riviera Maya, Tulum, and the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve.
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