Advocacy Organizations

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Advocacy Organizations
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Wangari Muta Maathai
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The Power of Numbers
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What explains the trends?

• Democratization
• Information revolution
• Permeability of borders and globalization
• International institutions
• State failure
• Post Cold War peace
• Reduction of official development assistance
• Disbursement of assistance through NGOs

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Types of Environmental NGOs

• Transnational
• WWF, Greenpeace, IUCN
• National
• Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Rainbow
  Movement in the Czech Republic Natural Resources
  Defence Council (NRDC)
• Local
• Grand Council of the Cree Wangari Muta Maathai
  Save the Land Harambee Green Belt Movement

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Strategies

• Target Governments and IOs
• Lobby for ozone regulation
• Against oil drilling in the Arctic
• Bring anti-whaling states in the IWC

• Target Society
• Bearing witness/awareness
• Advertising
• Litigation
• Boycotts
• McDonalds
• Tuna Dolphin
• Pressure companies
• Shell
• Plant trees
• Empower with information, education, access to
  credits

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Transnational vs. Local

• Issue areas global (biodiversity, globalization)
  vs. local (education, health, livelihoods)
• Resources haves and have-nots (dependency)
• Strategies technology and expertise intensive
  vs. culture and local knowledge intensive
• Complementary or competing actors?

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Local Action

• Two stories of local action
• -Kenya Green Belt Movement of Dr. Wangari Muta
  Maathai
• -Canada Aboriginal populations of NE Canada
• Do you see more similarities or differences?
• Notice that the issue of rights for marginalized
  population is in the center of local initiatives.

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Role in GEP

• Awareness/concern
• Monitoring Greenpeace and whaling TRAFFIC trade
  in endangered specie
• Drafting Convention Texts/Proposals Whaling,
  CITES
• Define Agendas Whaling about values
• Defying environmentally harmful institutions
  (World Bank, IMF, WTO)

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Global Civil Society

• Is the proliferation of NGO activity compatible
  with democracy?
• Are NGOs Accountable? To Whom?