The authorities had refused to allow most resources to be privately owned. Most market exchanges were criminal acts, and entrepreneurship of most kinds was declared to be criminal behavior. Production was centrally planned, with land and other resources owned by the state, not individuals. Although there were many repressive acts in the former Soviet Union and the Eastern European nations, the absence of property rights, along with the absence of the markets that result from the exchange of property rights, was enough to devastate the environment. To understand why, it is helpful to look at the reasons why private property rights protect the environment.
Owners have incentives to use resources productively and to conserve where possible.
Owners can obtain financial rewards from using resources productively and they have a strong incentive to reduce costs by conserving on their use of each resource. In the pursuit of profits, business firms have a strongincentive to implement new resource-saving technologies. Such incentives were absent in the Eastern bloc under socialism. The Trabant provided basic transportation and was easy to fix. The exhaust was so noxious that West Germans were not allowed to own Trabants.