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This video was produced in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund to highlight the 2026 Living Planet Report. More about that at the end of the episode. Over the past few decades, the number of green sea turtles has risen so much that the species has gone from being listed as "endangered" to a species of "least concern." Sea turtles have become a poster child for conservation - and it seems like we could use what we've learned from saving them to save a bunch of other species too…but it turns out it's not that simple.
Hi, I'm David, and this is MinuteEarth. Mama turtles on their way to lay eggs were getting blocked by coastal construction, so governments passed laws to keep the paths to their nesting grounds clear. Poachers were raiding nests for eggs, so on-the-ground groups started protecting beaches once the mamas laid their eggs. Hatchlings - which rely on reflected moonlight to find the ocean - were getting fooled by bright lights on the beaches where they were born, so coastal communities passed measures to keep beaches dark at night. And fishermen
were accidentally catching adult turtles at sea, so wildlife managers worked with people in the industry to create new gear that's less likely to hook turtles. As a result of these collective conservation tactics, the number of green sea turtles around the world has increased by more than 25%, and in certain areas, the number of nests has increased by more than tenfold. This seems like a repeatable recipe for animal conservation: find a species in trouble, identify the threats against it, problem-solve each one, and - voila! - the species will bounce back in no time. But green sea turtles had two critical things going
for them that most other at-risk species don't. First, most of the threats against the turtles were specific and reversible. Construction can be stopped, nesting grounds can be guarded, beach lights can be shut off, and fishermen can change the nets and hooks they use. But take endangered Sumatran orangutans, which have lost almost half of their jungle habitat to palm oil plantations - we can't just magically regrow all that forest overnight. Or emperor penguins; rising temps have melted nearly a third of the Antarctic sea ice that these birds need to raise their chicks,
and it's not like we can just refreeze the ocean. The other thing about sea turtles is that - if conditions are good - each mama turtle can produce hundreds of potential offspring per year, and with a little human intervention, many of those hatchlings can make it to the relative safety of the ocean. So even though it can take a couple decades for a green sea turtle to reach sexual maturity, the species' baby-making strategy gives it room to recover fast once the threats are gone. Contrast that with other endangered species, like the New Zealand parrot called the kākāpō;
they only produce a few eggs at a time, and only breed when the rimu trees make enough fruit for their chicks - which is only every two to four years! Or the vaquita, which only has one baby at a time, and then needs to wait two years to breed again. Even with great conservation measures in place, these endangered species can't reproduce fast enough to get their numbers out of the danger zone. Green sea turtles have been able to bounce back because the threats they faced were able to be addressed, and because the species reproduces in a way that helps them bounce back on a relatively quick time scale,
but that isn't the case for most at-risk species. That's a big reason why, of the 7,000 or so animal species that have ever been listed as endangered, only eight - including the green sea turtle - have ever been upgraded to least concern. So yes, the green sea turtle is a turtle-y amazing success story. It's just not necessarily an easily repeatable one. Across the world, wildlife populations have declined by 73% on average since 1970, according to the World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report. This shocking rate of decline raises serious concerns about the state of our planet. Threats like habitat loss,
poaching, illegal trade and climate change are putting immense pressure on wildlife. But while most species continue to struggle, some - like the green sea turtle - are making extraordinary recoveries that give us reason for hope. Conservation isn't a simple recipe, but when we understand what's driving a species' decline, we can make a dramatic difference by working together. The Living Planet Report shows us how urgently this kind of action is needed for other species and ecosystems around the globe. To learn more, visit the link in the description.
