Environmental protection and rational use of natural resources are among the priority directions of the state policy of the Republic of Belarus. Basic laws of the Republic of Belarus and international treaties guarantee the right to favorable environment, ecologically-safe living conditions, to receive, keep and distribute full, fair and topical information on environmental conditions, to public participation in decision-making and environmental justice to each citizen.

Environmental policy pursued by the Government provides for consistent structural reorganization of the production sphere, improvement of production technologies, including resource-saving, application of lowwaste and waste-free technologies, reduction of discharges and pollutants discharged into the air, waste utilization and processing.

The main goal of environmental policy of the Republic of Belarus is to ensure environmentally safe conditions for life of the people, rational use and protection of natural resources, and elaboration of legal economic principles for environmental protection in the interests of current and future generations. To reach this goal, it was required, above all, to carry on consistent structural reformation of the production sphere and implement a technological policy based on resource saving and replacement and the use of low-waste and no-waste technologies.

The main directions of work on implementation of the state environmental policy are:
Improvement of nature protection legislation; introduction of effective economic methods of management of and control over use of natural resources and environmental protection; setting up of an integral system for financing environmental protection measures; improvement of the system of bodies of governing and environmental control; implementation of a personnel training and retraining programme and increasing of environmental culture of population; development of international cooperation and more active use of foreign experience in solution of environmental problems.

The Republic of Belarus has developed an integrated system of planning of environmental protection actions. Broad measures are put into practice related to elaboration and implementation of programmes and complex projects to solve problems related to environmental protection. Such programmes include development of a network of specially protected natural territories, protection of population against consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident and the programmes "Health of the People", "Resource Saving", "Potable Water", etc. Perspective and current planning of environmental actions facilitates, to a great extent, the solution of multiple environmental problems. This includes the creation of a broad network of specially protected areas, rehabilitation of natural facilities damaged by human activities, increasing of the forested areas, development of a powerful potential of ecological science, etc.

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus - official site.