Export document
CITES permit
The convention on international trade in endangered species controls trade in listed plants and animals through permits issued before the goods move. Several Indonesian export products are affected, and the listings change, so the check is per species and per shipment rather than once.
The essentials.
- Listings are per species
- Appendices set the level of control, and a species can be added or moved. Check the current listing for the exact species rather than relying on last year's position.1
- Permits are issued before movement
- An export permit from Indonesia and, for the higher appendix, an import permit in the destination. Both before the goods travel.1
- It reaches worked products
- Carvings, oils, extracts and furniture made from a listed species are covered as well as raw material. Buyers assume it is about live animals.1
- Which Indonesian products it touches
- Agarwood, some corals and ornamental marine species, certain timbers, sea cucumber species and some eels. The list is species-level rather than category-level.2
Who asks for it.
This travels with the goods wherever they go. Either Indonesia requires it on the way out, or it is an ordinary trade document that any buyer, bank and carrier expects to see.
What it does not cover.
It is not a legality document
A permit says trade in this species is permitted at this volume. It says nothing about whether the timber was legally harvested, which is what SVLK addresses, or about deforestation due diligence.
It cannot be issued afterwards
Goods shipped without a required permit have a problem that cannot be corrected retrospectively. Seizure is a realistic outcome and it is the buyer's loss as much as the exporter's.
Species identification is the weak point
A worked product or a dried extract is hard to identify by eye. Naming the species in Latin on the order and confirming it is the practical protection, and it protects you legally as well as commercially.
Questions buyers ask.
How do I know if my product is listed?
Check the exact species against the current listing rather than asking the exporter. Species+ is the official database and it is searchable. A supplier saying it is fine is not a defence if it is not.
Does a permit make the trade sustainable?
It makes it legal at a permitted volume, which is a different claim. Sustainability of a specific harvest is a separate question and a permit does not answer it. Do not translate one into the other on packaging.
What happens if I import without one?
Seizure is realistic, and depending on the jurisdiction the consequences reach beyond losing the goods. This is one of the few areas covered on this site where the risk is legal rather than commercial.
Where this comes up.
Indonesian agarwood
Agarwood is CITES-listed and Indonesia runs annual quotas. Before price or grade, the question is whether a lawful export can happen at all.
Indonesian sea cucumber
Three Holothuria species are CITES Appendix II and the rest are not. Identifying which one you are buying decides whether the shipment is lawful.
Indonesian ornamental fish
Air freight, mortality clauses and species listings. What buying live fish from Indonesia actually involves and where it goes wrong.
Indonesian eel
Anguilla bicolor farmed for the Japanese and East Asian market. Why the species has to be identified and what the glass eel question is.
Indonesian mahogany
Indonesian mahogany is real Swietenia macrophylla, grown on Java since Dutch times. The species is CITES-listed, and plantation origin does not remove that.
Indonesian sandalwood
Santalum album from East Nusa Tenggara. Assessed as vulnerable, regulated at national level, and a trade where the first question is legality.
Export documents, by category
Four categories, four different sets of paperwork and almost no overlap. Built from the reference pages, so it cannot fall behind what is published.
How to verify an Indonesian supplier
Two public government registries, the cross-check between them that catches most problems before a deposit moves, and the part only a visit can answer.
Sources
- 1Species+, the CITES listings database. UNEP-WCMC and the CITES Secretariat. Checked 5 August 2026.
- 2Non-detriment finding for agarwood in Indonesia. CITES. Checked 3 August 2026.
Need this document for a real shipment?
Tell us the product and the destination port. We come back with the full document set for that route, who issues each one, and how long it takes.