Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma
Decades of conservation efforts have paid off in Cyprus, with the country’s population of turtles almost tripling in the last few decades. Efforts to protect two endangered species – loggerhead and green turtles – began in 1978, long before other EU countries began conservation efforts.
We started with about 300 turtle nests and in recent years we went up to 1,100 nests. Of course, there were fluctuations, but this is the kind of trend that we’re talking about.Andreas Demetropoulos, Co-Head of Turtle Conservation Program
This is specially encouraging for green turtles, which lay their eggs only in two countries in the region – Turkey and Cyprus. Locals and tourists have also joined in the conservation efforts.
When we came here we had heard about turtle conservation on the Internet, and me and my girlfriend decided to come up and visit to see what has been actually done. So we came here two weeks ago. It’s fantastic how they look after the nests, make sure that they’re safe and then they check the nests for any turtles that didn’t make it up to the top of the sand. It’s amazing.Liam Doran, Tourist
The tiny turtles embarking on their journey to the sea right now will come back to the same place in about 20-30 years to lay their eggs, owing to an ingrained “biological GPS” that brings them back to the same places their ancestors chose years ago.
(With inputs from AP)
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