Membership of the Convention has grown steadily since its entry into force on 1 November 1983. At the last meeting of the Conference of the Parties in April 1997, membership was about to reach 50 with the impending accession of Peru. Since then, a further fifteen States have joined the Convention, ten in 1999 alone (growth between COP4 and COP5 was just five), increasing the number of CMS Parties to 65 as of 1 November 1999 (plus Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China).

The new Contracting Parties with their dates of accession are: Chad (September 1997), Liechtenstein (November 1997), Mauritania (July 1998), Romania (July 1998), Uzbekistan (September 1998), Paraguay (January 1999), Slovenia (February 1999), Kenya (May 1999), Latvia (July 1999), United Republic of Tanzania (July 1999), Bulgaria (September 1999), Greece (October 1999), Mongolia (November 1999), the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (November 1999), Ukraine (November 1999).