Understanding and explaining the outcomes of environmental and nature protection policies have been the issue of research interest specifically in the light of the societal goals to halt environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and global warming. Considering policy process as a multi-level nested process of laying down, shaping, and carrying out legal rules, the following questions arise: Which stage of the policy process has a particular influence on the direction and outcomes of a specific policy?; and What are the appropriate methods for identifying it? The presentation demonstrates, how the institutional grammar tool can be applied to analyze the formation of legal rules along the policy process and to diagnose the reasons for the observed policy outcomes. The results demonstrate (1) the role of the executive in shaping policy direction and (2) the importance of beliefs dominating within the first-level executive bodies when translating policy objectives into concrete actions of public officials and the policy target group.