Environmental NGOs in World Politics

The tremendouse growth in the size and number of international environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is a widely recognized but little studied phenomenon. It is a phenomenon that arises at a time when states are reactive, at best, to the global ecological crisis and when economic globalization appears to contribute significantly to the acceleration of that crisis. This book explains how NGOs perform key roles in an emerging world of environmental politics. It shows how they act as independent bargainers and as agents of social learning, to link biophysical conditions to the political realm at both the local and global levels. The authors argue that NGOs are able to appropriate those environmental issues unresolvable by traditional politics, building their own, often unique, bargaining assests to negotiate with other international actors. Four major case studies: of the Great Lakes water negotiations, the ivory trade ban, Antarctic environmental protection and UNCED, illustrate the richness of NGO activity and the geographic and substantive diversity of their politics. They also reveal the tough choices that decision-makers, both governmental and non-govern must make in trying to protect the environment, seek new forms of governance, and foster social environmental learning. The authors conclude that increasingly, NGOs are picking up where governmental action stops. Through its detailed examination of NGO relations and its development of an original theoretical framework connecting biophysical conditions and political trends, this book generates important questions for the study of international environmental politics.