I. INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 



International organizations fall into two categories: International 

 Governmental Organizations (IGO's) and International Nongovernmental 

 Organizations (INGO's or NGO's). The governmental organizations are 

 those entered into by treaty or other agreement between two or more 

 national governments. The nongovernmental organizations are gener- 

 ally composed of organizations or individuals who have a common 

 interest, which often is a specialized scientific discipline. 



While separate entities, governmental and nongovernmental agencies 

 often cooperate on programs and projects of mutual interest. Direc- 

 tion and funding may be supplied by the governmental organizations, 

 whereas scientific expertise is supplied by the nongovernmental 

 groups. The prime governmental organization with universal interests 

 in marine sciences is the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission 

 (IOC) of UNESCO, and the prime nongovernmental organization with uni- 

 versal interests in marine sciences is the Scientific Committee on 

 Oceanic Research (SCOR) of the International Council of Scientific 

 Unions (ICSU). IOC and SCOR participate in many of the major scien- 

 tific programs in oceanography. Other agencies, both governmental 

 and nongovernmental, have more parochial interests, limited to a geo- 

 graphic area or a special subject matter. 



Part I. A describes intergovernmental organizations; descriptions 

 of the U.N. organizations precede those of independent agencies, 

 which appear in alphabetical order; Part I.B describes nongovern- 

 mental organizations; descriptions of the organizations of the 

 International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) precede those of 

 the independent or unaffiliated groups, which again appear in alpha- 

 betical order; Part I.C describes joint organizations; and Part I.D 

 describes data centers and other facilities either operated by inter- 

 national organizations or as depositories of international data. 



A. INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS 



United Nations 



1. UNITED NATIONS: U.N. 



The United Nations was created in 1945 to maintain international 

 peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, and 

 to achieve international cooperation in solving economic, social, 

 cultural, and humanitarian problems. It is a forum for bringing 

 nations together to attain common goals. One such conference was 

 the 1971 U.N. Conference on the Human Environment, known as UNCHE. 

 Many recommendations for programs and projects dealing with study. 

 Improvement, and conservation of the environment, including the 

 marine environment, originated during UNCHE. 



Within its headquarters is an Ocean Economics and Technology Of- 

 fice (OETO), responsible for coordination of U.N. programs in ocean- 

 related activities at the interdepartmental level. One of OETO's 

 projects is the development of a Marine and Coastal Technology Infor- 

 mation Service (MACTIS) , which led to the U.N. becoming a sponsor 

 with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Intergovern- 

 mental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the Aquatic Sciences and 

 Fisheries Information System (ASFIS). U.N. also sponsors a Group of 

 Experts on the Standardization of Geographic Names, which serves as 

 a coordinating group for the Conference on Standardization of Geo- 

 graphic Names, which meets every 5 years. The International 



