ABSTRACT
The past decade has witnessed a dramatic increase in environmental concern in Poland (Figure 9.1). Since 1990 there has been greater freedom of access to previously unobtainable information and the development of an ecological movement which has influenced considerable changes in public opinion. One of Poland’s early post-communist priorities during the transition to a market economy was to tackle its environmental problems. Environmental protection has been given a much higher pre-eminence, due to serious problems inherited from the communist past with air pollution, inadequate water treatment and contaminated soil. Untreated industrial discharges, unmarked toxic waste dumps and unacceptable water supplies are found throughout the country. The early efforts were focused on specific chronic environmental cases; later endeavours were concerned with the provision of more long-term solutions linked to sustainable environmental management (Clarke and Cole, 1998).
