In the present article, an interesting análisis is made of the most relevant subjects of environmental management which has been done in Venezuela in the last years. In the 70’s the first government priorities in the subject were about the energy consumption and the natural resources, the territorial planning and the use of land, all of which determined the creation of the Ministry of environment and natural resources (MARNR) and the formulation of the organic law of environment. Together with the description of the more important tasks in hands of the M.A.R.N.S., the author realizes the contradictions which arise from the start with other government planning agencies, examining at the same time, the different plans and the law, as how to approach the environmental subject, either in its formulation or through functional programs not always in harmony with the political guidelines. Specially suggestive results the ways in which civil society is involved in the environmental issue in order to defend and preservate the environment together with the public sector; also result of interest the development of environmental policies made by different governments in different social and economic contexts. In relation to the last subject, Venezuela experiments “the logic of an underdeveloped petroleum based economy” and therefore is subject to economic cicles of prosperity and depreciation where the ecological implications are always forgotten. In view of this, the formulation of an alternative scenary for the long term about the potential environment of the country is rather urgent, part of which is present in the recommendations given by the study of Venezuelan environmental systems.