This course offers an overview of the role that public administrations should play in environmental protection. It focuses on the role of the environmental administration and the mechanisms and techniques of administrative intervention for the protection of the environment. Because of that, it is structured in three thematic blocks. In the first one, the competences of the different public administrations and the administrative organization of the environment are analyzed, as well as the rights of access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters. The second section analyzes the mechanisms of general administrative intervention on the environment (regulation, limitation and control, as well as incentives and economic promotion). The third section provides an introduction to sectorial administrative intervention on the environment, with a general approach to different sectors (environmental protection of inland waters; environmental protection of the coast; protection of biodiversity; legal regime of noise, air, light and soil pollution; and legal regime of waste).