This book explains how NGOs perform key roles in an emerging world 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 assets to negotiate with other international actors. Four major case studies — 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-governmental, must make in trying to protect the environment, seek new forms of governance, and foster social environment learning. The authors conclude that increasingly, NGOs are picking up where governmental action stops.