The article presents a systematic set of instruments for environment protection as the background to describe major achievements Poland can boast of in the field of environment protection. In the presented group of instruments for environment protection, regulations, institutions and a financing system are concerned as rudimentary since they constitute a legal, institutional, and economic basis for environment protection. The achievements of environment protection in Poland result both from the political transformations that took place after 1989 and from a consistent application of environment protection instruments on all the state managerial levels.