The engagement of commune self-governments in the functioning of legal forms of environmental protection by the example of selected communes in the Lubelskie Voivodship

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the engagement of self-governments in Polish communes in the creation of and support for functioning of legal forms of environmental protection. Its empirical part contains the presentation of the results of a questionnaire survey carried out on a group of 52 commune heads managing communes within the territory of the Lubelskie Voivodship situated in the south-eastern part of Poland. The conclusions drawn on the basis of said results make it possible to identify selected problems associated with the engagement of local communities in this essential, in terms of protection of natural values, field of activities and to supplement the relatively small, as far, number of previously published studies devoted to this issue. From the conducted analysis, it appears, among others, that very few protected objects have been launched by commune authorities in the period of last ten years. Additionally, attention has been paid to some unfavourable phenomena contributing to this situation and particularly to the insufficient level of financing of protection forms, unsatisfactory level of knowledge possessed by the staff of officials, generally insufficient identification of the potential of the natural environment resulting from long overdue or lacking stocktaking or from frequent omissions in the scope of the assessments of projects with an impact on the environment.