Abstract:   This paper describes a typical environment management problem, i.e., environment will be improved by allocating pollutant emission quotas. After analyzing the characteristics of the problem, a DEA-based approach is developed to address the problem. In the proposed approach, the pollutant emission quota is a type of decision variables in the proposed DEA model and it is allocated to decision making units (DMUs) by optimizing it when solving the proposed model. The approach, which is applied to 32 paper mills along the Huai River in China, indicates that the paper mill system's overall eco-efficiency is effectively improved. Since the proposed approach can improve the system's eco-efficiency by llocation the pollutant emission quota, it can provide more veracious information for environment management.