Environmental Protection Programmes in selected Polish communities as the first step towards sustainable development

Purpose: This paper assesses the possibility of using Environmental Protection Programmes (EPPs) in Polish local government as a tool to manage and protect the environment. In Poland, local government units (LGUs) at all levels are obligated by law to prepare EPPs in accordance with the principle of sustainable development. Methodology: A survey was used as a research tool to determine the role of EPPs in LGUs at the community level. This research attempted to answer the following question: Are environmental protection programmes merely a document that communities are obligated to prepare? Findings: The results of this research show that community awareness is still very low. Communities only prepare the EPPs, but they do not think about using them as a long-term management tool. Originality/value: This research contributes to showing the role of EPPs in the management of communities in Poland. Research limitations: A limitation of this research is the number of respondents, as it only included a small number of Polish communities. Another limitation is that this research presents only the view of one group of stakeholders – clerks.