Malden Island importance as a protected area for breeding seabirds. The island is designated as the "Malden Island Wildlife Sanctuary". In 2014 the Kiribati government established a fishing exclusion zone around each of the southern Line Islands (Caroline (commonly called Millennium), Flint, Vostok, Malden, and Starbuck). Malden Island is located south of the equator, south of Honolulu, Hawaii, and more than west of the coast of South America. The nearest land is uninhabited Starbuck Island, to the southwest. The closest inhabited place is Tongareva (Penrhyn Island), to the southwest. The nearest airport is on Kiritimati (Christmas Island), to the northwest. Other nearby
Kiritimati species dominates in the coastal grasslands. The wetter parts of the lagoon shore are often covered by abundant growth of shoreline purslane ("Sesuvium portulacastrum"). Perhaps the most destructive of the recently introduced plants is sweetscent ("Pluchea odorata"), a camphorweed, which is considered an invasive weed as it overgrows and displaces herbs and grasses. The introduced creeper "Tribulus cistoides", despite having also spread conspicuously, is considered to be more beneficial than harmful to the ecosystem, as it provides good nesting sites for some seabirds. More than 35 bird species have been recorded from Kiritimati. As noted above, only the bokikokiko ("Acrocephalus