Country-specific conservation initiatives

In addition to management by global entities such as the IUCN and CITES, specific countries around the world whose jurisdiction turtle nesting and feeding grounds fall under have taken specific conservation efforts in order to protect the species.

Eco-tourism has been one specific thrust in Sabah, Malaysia. The island of Pulau Selingan is home to a turtle hatchery. Staff on the island collect some of the eggs laid each night and place them in a hatchery to protect them from predators. Incubation of the eggs apparently takes around sixty days. Once hatched, tourists are permitted to assist in the release of the baby turtles into the sea. In the United States, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services classified Chelonia mydas as a threatened species, rendering it a federal offense to capture or otherwise kill an individual turtle. In part due to this, the Hawaiian green turtle subpopulation has made a remarkable comeback and is now also the subject of eco-tourism and has become something of a state mascot. Students of Hawaii Preparatory Academy on the Big Island have tagged thousands of specimens since the early 1990s. In the United Kingdom the species is protected by a Biodiversity Action Plan, due to harvesting in excess from human overpopulation and marine pollution. The Pakistani-branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature has been initiating various projects for secure turtle hatching since the 1980s. However, the population has continued to decline due to various factors.

In the Atlantic, conservation initiatives have centered around nesting sites in the Caribbean. The Tortuguero nesting beaches in Costa Rica have been the subject of egg-collection limits since the 1950s. Two decades after, the Tortuguero National Park formally established in 1976 ensuring the protection of that region's nesting grounds. On Ascension Island where some of the species' most important nesting beaches are, an active conservation program has been implemented. Karumbé has been monitoring foraging and developmental areas of juvenile green turtles Chelonia mydas in Uruguay from 1999.