20 December 2012: The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) announced that Maldives has become the 177th Party to CITES.

Maldives are home to over 300 CITES species, including the whale shark, dugong, giant humphead wrasse, black seahorse, hawksbill turtle, Eurasian spoonbill, duck hawk and Indian flying-fox. CITES trade with Maldives consists mainly of raw corals.

The Convention will enter into force for Maldives on 12 March 2013, which means that the government will be part of the final decision-making in the last plenary sessions of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP 16), to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 3-14 March 2013. [CITES Press Release]