This book examines the bioeconomy concept, analysing the opportunities it can generate, the constraints and the potential benefits for society. The main objective of bioeconomy is to promote economic development, by creating jobs and enhancing the sustainable utilization of bio-resources. A primary driver of bioeconomy strategy, therefore, is the need to respond to the growing population's food and economic requirements. While today research and literature related to bioeconomy are limited, this book presents a unique collection of perspectives on the complex dimensions of the bioeconomy debate. Drawing on the experiences from Europe, Asia and Africa, it presents an international overview. The chapters address a wide range of issues, including coastal-land interactions, ecosystem services, food production, rural development, agriculture, forest management and bioenergy. As a whole, the volume outlines what role bioeconomy can play in contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without compromising on the ecological sustainability and equitable distribution of benefits. The book concludes by providing recommendations for developing bioeconomy in respective sectors (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, renewable energy) and directions for planning future bioeconomy programmes and strategies. The Bioeconomy Approach will be of great interest to students and scholars of ecological economics, development economics and environmental economics, as well as policy-makers and practitioners involved in sustainable development.

This book examines the bioeconomy concept, analysing the opportunities it can generate, the constraints and the potential benefits for society. The main objective of bioeconomy is to promote economic development, by creating jobs and enhancing the sustainable utilization of bio-resources. A primary driver of bioeconomy strategy, therefore, is the need to respond to the growing population's food and economic requirements. While today research and literature related to bioeconomy are limited, this book presents a unique collection of perspectives on the complex dimensions of the bioeconomy debate. Drawing on the experiences from Europe, Asia and Africa, it presents an international overview. The chapters address a wide range of issues, including coastal-land interactions, ecosystem services, food production, rural development, agriculture, forest management and bioenergy. As a whole, the volume outlines what role bioeconomy can play in contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without compromising on the ecological sustainability and equitable distribution of benefits. The book concludes by providing recommendations for developing bioeconomy in respective sectors (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, renewable energy) and directions for planning future bioeconomy programmes and strategies. The Bioeconomy Approach will be of great interest to students and scholars of ecological economics, development economics and environmental economics, as well as policy-makers and practitioners involved in sustainable development.

In this edited volume, scientists from different disciplines discuss modern biotechnological processes and a knowledge-based bioeconomy. The authors base their arguments on ecological, economic, legal, social and ethical aspects. Moreover, they explore the opportunities, risks, and challenges of bioeconomic concepts and biotechnologies in many subject areas. The chapters consider land use, nature and environment, nutrition, technology and governance, energy, economy, law and regulation, as well as ethics. A special focus should be on new technologies and how they can be used, without compromising the ambitious goal of creating a more sustainable, but also fair world. To do justice to this broad array of topics, the editors frame all topics in overarching introductions and close the volume with final conclusions. Thereby this volume offers data and critical thoughts for any member of a Bioeconomy – be it from academia, the industry or public regulation.

This book gathers contributions from scientists and industry representatives on achieving a sustainable bioeconomy. It also covers the social sciences, economics, business, education and the environmental sciences. There is an urgent need to optimise and maximise the use of biological resources, so that primary production and processing systems can generate more food, fibre and other bio-based products with less environmental impacts and lower greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, we need a “sustainable bioeconomy” – a term that encompasses the sustainable production of renewable resources from land, fisheries and aquaculture environments and their conversion into food, feed, fibre bio-based products and bio-energy, as well as related public goods. Despite the relevance of achieving a sustainable bioeconomy, there are very few publications in this field. Addressing that gap, this book illustrates how biological resources and ecosystems could be used in a more sustainable, efficient and integrated manner – in other words, how the principles of sustainable bioeconomy can be implemented in practice. Given its interdisciplinary nature, the field of sustainable bioeconomy offers a unique opportunity to address complex and interconnected challenges, while also promoting economic growth. It helps countries and societies to make a transition and to use resources more efficiently, and shows how to rely less on biological resources to satisfy industry demands and consumer needs. The papers are innovative, cross-cutting and include many practice-based lessons learned, some of which are reproducible elsewhere. In closing, the book, prepared by the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and the World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre (WSD-RTC), reiterates the need to promote a sustainable bioeconomy today.

"This book demonstrates that a holistic approach to the bioeconomy is essential if it is to achieve its full potential in driving economic growth while simultaneously providing ecological, social and technological benefits. Definitions of the 'bioeconomy' vary but in general it incorporates the ways in which societies manage and distribute their primary or secondary biological resources for further use in everyday life (e.g. food, materials, and energy). The classical sectors related to the bioeconomy have therefore been agriculture, forestry and aquaculture, now extended to include bioenergy, biofuels, biochemicals, and other processing and service industries. There are also related new concepts such us the blue economy, the green economy, and the circular economy. This book integrates these definitions, sectoral analyses and new concepts into a fully rounded study of the bioeconomy. It is argued that the key aims in the coming years have to be the harmonization of public policies between different sectors, regulation of legislative framework for the bioeconomy, and clear communication of these issues. In particular, the book argues that a strengthening of the monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of the bioeconomy on society is an essential starting point. For this to be effective, appropriate indicators need to be established and defined for the monitoring of the effects of these resilient policies related to bioeconomy and their impact on local and regional development and quality of life. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the bioeconomy including students and scholars of ecological economics, environmental economics, sustainability, innovation, and regional development"--

This volume presents a timely recognition, warning and mapping of the fast approaching wave, or “bio-tsunami”, of global socio-technical transformation, built by a much wider spectrum of converging powers, including biotechnology, new agriculture, novel foods, health, quality of life, environment, energy, sustainability, education, knowledge management, and design of smart applications. The book contains eight sections corresponding to different clusters of bioeconomic and socio-technical change, as identified by the editors’ “Scanning the Horizon” foresight research; it also offers an integrated view of the future bioeconomy landscape though the convergence of several technologies that affect everyday life. The clusters offer methodologies for forecasting the future bioeconomy, and how these predictions can affect target-setting and the orientation of policies and actions to manage cultural and societal change, and achieve sustainable development in less developed areas. The book will be of interest to researchers, producers, logistics experts, policy makers, regulators, business and financial institutions, and biotechnologists (e.g. geneticists, food experts, etc.).

This publication investigates key aspects surrounding the sustainability of bioeconomy development: the use of biomass as feedstock for future production; the design and building of biorefineries for the manufacture of a range of fuels, chemicals and materials, and also for electricity generation.

This book is an essential reading for students, researchers and non-academic experts dealing with environmental, economic and social science aspects of the circular bioeconomy and with sustainability in general.

FAO has been working for many years on non-food biomass products (including sustainable bioenergy) and biotechnology, and it received a mandate to coordinate international work on ‘food first’ sustainable bioeconomy by 62 Ministers present at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) 2015. Moreover, FAO has received support from the Government of Germany to develop guidelines on sustainable bioeconomy development (Phase 1: 2016; Phase 2: 2017-mid 2020). This involves work on the bioeconomy monitoring, including the selection and use of indicators. The ultimate aim of FAO’s work on sustainability indicators is to provide technical assistance to countries and stakeholders in developing and monitoring sustainable bioeconomy, more particularly on identifying suitable indicators in line with the Sustainable Bioeconomy Aspirational Principles and related Criteria, agreed upon in 2016 by the International Sustainable Bioeconomy Working Group created in the context of FAO’s project on Sustainable Bioeconomy Guidelines. These indicators shall help both policy makers and producers/manufacturers in monitoring and evaluating the sustainability of their bioeconomy strategies and interventions. In order to cover all the relevant aspects and issues for a sustainable bioeconomy, our approach identifies impact categories from the sustainable bioeconomy principles and criteria. The monitoring approach suggested is balanced, since it considers the three sustainability dimensions (social, economic and environmental); at the same time, it proposes to use a limited set of core indicators, to keep the monitoring feasible and cost-effective. The suggested methodology starts with a review of existing monitoring approaches to identify already available indicators, from which the authors.