A membership of an NGO can therefore be an easier way of getting your voice heard. Also, the people can often easier see what the NGOs are doing via the special happenings, campaigns etc. whereas the procedure between governments or inter-governmental organizations seem to be more closed. .
All of this lead to the NGOs being considered as having a more genuine or direct legitimacy from the public and a greater feeling of the current and developing public moral or conscience. All together, the role the NGOs have taken can be defined as a representative of international public interest, conscience and moral. .
.
3. The practical roles/functions:.
Educating and setting the agenda.
Before a Convention on Biodiversity, an Earth Summit or any other initiative the like is put into action, even before it becomes a matter of public or governmental interest, the work of NGOs have been going on for long. Though NGOs have no legal rights to force something on the agenda of meetings between states, they play an essential role in process of agenda-setting. Via various mechanisms the NGOs have significant power to decide which issues public and governmental attention should be pointed at. By constantly being focused on one area of interest and always having a finger on the pulse in the scientific community of that specific area, each NGO has the best possible basis for spotting and identifying problems. After spotting the problem, the NGO can prioritise it amongst other problems identified and ultimately decide whether or not this is an issue it wishes the formal legal international community, the states, to do something about. This can be achieved by making trans-national campaigns and happenings, and by the media coverage these events will give the NGO. Through these mechanisms the NGOs reach the public and translate current scientific knowledge into more easily comprehensible problems that the public can understand and react upon.
