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The construction of the concept of sustainable development and environmental resources at the international, regional, and national levels is one of the main tasks of a planned environmental policy. A significant number of foreign authors based their entire scientific work in theoretical framing, constructing, and improving the necessary level of sustainable development, and improving environmental resources. The emergence and development of theoretical orientations also produced results on the normative level, towards the adoption of a number of international instruments. In addition to thematic reviews of theoretical and normative aspects, this paper apostrophizes the possibilities of criminal-legal protection of environmental resources in the light of existing legislation. The paper includes research of the practice, scope, and dynamics of environmental crimes and the respective punishment from 2006 through 2010. For this five-year period, it is possible to properly consider penal policy against environmental crimes and draw valid conclusions that will confirm or disprove the initial hypothesis, which states: "More lenient penal policies of courts of justice reduce the possibility of criminal-legal protection of the environment". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]