The CITES Secretariat is pleased to welcome the Republic of Maldives as the 177th Party to CITES.
Maldives is an island country in the Indian Ocean. The islands of Maldives are formed by coral deposits resting on eroded and submerged volcanoes. They are home to a wide variety of fauna and flora, including over 300 CITES species, such as 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 Maldives 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 (CoP16), to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 3 to 14 March 2013.
Map of Maldives
