ABSTRACT
The ascent of state memberships in intergovernmental environmental organizations was equally striking, but occurred later (e.g., the Asia and Pacific Plant Protection Commission was founded in 1955 and the Antarctic Mineral Resources Commission was founded in 1988). These organizations represent official state mobilization around environmental issues. They set parameters of action for the global commons (oceans, seas, rivers, the atmosphere) and increasingly establish standards of conduct within national borders (Haas and Sundgren 1993). Among
the earliest members of an intergovernmental environmental organization were the United States, Canada, Japan, and the USSR, all members of the North Pacific Fur Seal Commission, established in 1911. Now such memberships are much more broadly dispersed among nation-states. There are 58 countries on the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme, the master intergovernmental environmental organization, whose broad mission it is "to provide environmental policy leadership within the world community" (UIA 1999:2177).
