Bioeconomic Perspective Research Articles

Biotechnological innovations in nanocellulose production from waste biomass with a focus on pineapple waste

New materials’ synthesis and utilization have shown many critical challenges in healthcare and other industrial sectors as most of these materials are directly or indirectly developed from fossil fuel resources. Environmental regulations and sustainability concepts have promoted the use of natural compounds with unique structures and properties that can be biodegradable, biocompatible, and eco-friendly. In this context, nanocellulose (NC) utility in different sectors and industries is reported due to their unique properties including biocompatibility and antimicrobial characteristics. The bacterial nanocellulose (BNC)-based materials have been synthesized by bacterial cells and extracted from plant waste materials including pineapple plant waste biomass. These materials have been utilized in the form of nanofibers and nanocrystals. These materials are found to have excellent surface properties, low density, and good transparency, and are rich in hydroxyl groups for their modifications to other useful products. These materials are well utilized in different sectors including biomedical or health care centres, nanocomposite materials, supercapacitors, and polymer matrix production. This review explores different approaches for NC production from pineapple waste residues using biotechnological interventions, approaches for their modification, and wider applications in different sectors. Recent technological developments in NC production by enzymatic treatment are critically discussed. The utilization of pineapple waste-derived NC from a bioeconomic perspective is summarized in the paper. The chemical composition and properties of nanocellulose extracted from pineapple waste may have unique characteristics compared to other sources. Pineapple waste for nanocellulose production aligns with the principles of sustainability, waste reduction, and innovation, making it a promising and novel approach in the field of nanocellulose materials.

Biorefinery solutions for food processing wastes: A sustainable bioeconomic perspective

Food waste is a significant emitter of greenhouse gases (mostly methane) that causes environmental devastation. Further, nearly onethird of produced food goes to wastage during the supply chain and harvesting process. These can contribute to a yearly loss of US$ 1 trillion. Considering these, there is a great concern all over the world regarding sustainable solutions for food waste minimization. For instance, the beverage, dairy, fruit and vegetable, and cereal industries create 26%, 21%, 14.8%, and 12.8% of food wastes, respectively. Such food waste is rich in protein, fat, carbohydrates, and so on, providing the possibility of fermentative products. Also, these food wastes are very homogeneous, which means they have a great potential for usage as feedstock in biorefineries (BRs), thereby greatly reducing the massive environmental load and offering sustainable resources to produce value-added products/chemicals like β-carotene, polyhydroxyalkanoates, lycopene, eicosapentaenoic acid, triacylglycerol (precursor for biodiesel) and so on. Food waste BR is a state-of-the-art facility that processes various types of food waste into useful value-added products. Food production in the EU (European Union) produces nearly 30 million tonnes of inedible food wastes per year. This value is expected to rise as the food processing business grows at a 4.3% CAGR from 2019 to 2024, hitting $4.1 trillion. Collectively, food waste BRs have great potential to empower circular bioeconomy, support fabrication sustainability, and solve environmental challenges. This review provides a distinctive overview of the latest developments in cutting-edge technologies for the bioconversion of food waste, as well as an in-depth analysis of each process, and critical aspects on development of sustainable biorefinery solutions for food processing wastes along with circular bioeconomy.

Biochar as a carbonaceous material to enhance soil quality in drylands ecosystems: A review

Drylands are fragile environments that should be carefully managed to improve their quality and functions to achieve sustainable development. Their major problems involve low availability of nutrients and soil organic carbon content. Biochar effect on soil is a joint response of micro to nano sized biochar and soil characteristics. In this review, we attempt to carry out a critical analysis of biochar application to enhance dryland soil quality. Correlating the effects identified from its soil application, we explored the subjects that remains open in the literature. The relation of composition-structure-properties of biochar vary among pyrolysis parameters and biomass sources. Limitations in soil physical quality in drylands, such as low water-holding capacity, can be alleviated by applying biochar at a rate of 10 Mg ha−1 also resulting in beneficial effects on soil aggregation, improved soil porosity, and reduced bulk density. Biochar addition can contribute to the rehabilitation of saline soils, by releasing cations able to displaces sodium in the exchange complex. However, the recovery process of salt-affected soils might be accelerated by the association of biochar with another soil conditioners. This is a promising strategy especially considering the biochar alkalinity and variability in nutrients bioavailability to improve soil fertilization. Further, while higher biochar application rate (>20 Mg ha−1) might change soil C dynamics, a combination of biochar and nitrogen fertilizer can increase microbial biomass carbon in dryland systems. Other aspect of biochar soil application is the economic viability of scale-up production, which is mainly associate to pyrolysis process being biochar production the costliest stage. Nevertheless, the supplying of feedstock might also represent a great input on biochar final costs. Therefore, biochar-based technology is a big opportunity to improve fragile environments such as drylands, integrating sustainable technologies with regional development. Considering the specificity of application area, it might be a model of sustainable agricultural practices protecting the environment in a bioeconomic perspective.

Lignocellulosic waste biomass for biohydrogen production: future challenges and bio‐economic perspectives

AbstractThe reduction of greenhouse gases in the automobile and industrial sectors has been a focus of global concern due to their adverse effects on the environment. This has led to a search for clean, green, and sustainable biobased energy sources. Green energy sources have a positive effect on the environment. Lignocellulosic waste biomass from various agro‐processing and industrial sources has a strong potential for mitigating energy crises in the future, supplying green energy produced by biochemical and thermochemical conversion processes. Amongst all of the biofuels, biohydrogen is a promising option. It has a high energy content and can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass by microbial fermentation processes. In this review, recent advances in various aspects of biohydrogen production from lignocellulosic biomass‐like processes are described. Future challenges and opportunities for hydrogen production from waste are summarized critically. Bioeconomic perspectives on biohydrogen production from waste biomass are explained. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Bioeconomic analysis on coral fish in Raja Ampat Regency, West Papua Province

Fishery resources of Raja Ampat Regency’s waters in West Papua Province have shown a declining trend in terms of total coral fish production. In order to sustainably manage the fishery for future utilization, a baseline analysis needs to be carried out as a tool for sustainable management. This paper attempts to indicate baseline performance of fisheries from bioeconomic perspectives. Data in this study was collected from primary and secondary data. Primary data collected by using quesionair for asking respondents who coastal people of Raja Ampat in 6 (six) villages, than secondary data collected should be in time series format and coming from officially office related government. Than the data resulted to be analyses using bioeconomic formula. One of important results of bioeconomic analysis is that currently there is no indication of overfishing yet in Raja Ampat waters. Total production in open access level has showen 3.97 ton per week. Effort in sole owner level (MEY) has showen 9.06 trip per week. Economic rent under sole owner regime is around Rp 43,040,425.19 per week. This condition has shown that catch per unit effort has been efficient, so that fish harvest has been better and will be followed by maximum economic rent.

The ecology of diamond sourcing: from mined to synthetic gems as a sustainable transition

Luxury goods such as gemstones constitute a challenge for moving towards a sustainable society. From a purely bio-economic perspective, such goods consume planetary resources to provide a human “want” rather than a “need”. However, their extraction or manufacturing also provides important livelihoods for communities along the supply chain and hence contribute towards development outcomes. Comparing mined versus synthetic gems can provide consumers with important benchmarks on choice. The energy usage and emissions in mined versus lab-created diamonds was evaluated, based on industrial data, since these two factors are often a general indicator of environmental impact that can be useful in product comparisons. Depending on the process and the location of the mine, the data can be highly divergent and cannot be used as a singular measure of environmental impact. There is a need to develop life cycle analysis techniques from industrial ecology to conduct a detailed comparison of synthetic versus mined stones. Informed consumers could help to transition this luxury good towards a mix of mined and synthetic gems that best meet ecological and social metrics of sustainability.

Reconciling agriculture and biodiversity in European public policies: a bio-economic perspective

Agriculture has been identified as a major driver of the current significant changes in farmland biodiversity. Taking into account these environmental impacts, agriculture today aims at a more sustainable way of producing that would reconcile its economic and ecological functions. A new approach based on bio-economic modeling has been recently developed to explore different facets of such reconciliation and to understand how to promote sustainable agricultural public policies. In this paper, we review the contributions of such approach. The review shows that it is possible to reconcile agriculture and biodiversity with public policies, since it is possible to increase simultaneously the economic and ecological performances of agricultural landscapes compared to the current trends. However, it is not possible to optimize this reconciliation: The different criteria cannot be maximized simultaneously, and some trade-offs emerge between economic and ecological criteria in optimality. To go further, some bio-economic studies open new perspectives. For example, they suggest studying the society as a whole instead of focusing on the agricultural sector or going beyond the concept of optimality by stressing the idea of viability. In addition to reforming the current agricultural policies, deeper debates on the notion of sustainability have to be held.

Bioeconomic perspectives to an optimal control dengue model

A model with six mutually exclusive compartments related to dengue is studied. Three vector control tools are considered: insecticides (larvicide and adulticide) and mechanical control. The basic reproduction number associated to the model is presented. The problem is studied using an optimal control approach. The human data are based on the dengue outbreak that occurred in Cape Verde. Control measures are simulated in different scenarios and their consequences analysed.

Rotating the Necker cube: A bioeconomic approach to cooperation and the causal role of synergy in evolution

The paradox of widespread cooperation in an intensely competitive natural world has been a major focus of theory and research in evolutionary biology and related disciplines over the past several decades. While much of the earlier work in this vein was gene-centered and grounded in inclusive fitness (or kin selection) theory, more recent developments suggest that it might also be useful to view cooperation (and biological complexity) from a bioeconomic perspective. Here I will briefly explore the case for a paradigm shift, with special reference to the role of functional synergy as a distinct class of interdependent causal influences in evolution. I will argue that synergies of various kinds have been important drivers for cooperation in living systems at all levels. From this perspective, inclusive fitness and other factors may be enablers for cooperation, but the many exceptions show that genetic relatedness is neither necessary nor sufficient for the emergence of cooperative phenomena.

Does size matter? A bioeconomic perspective on optimal harvesting when price is size-dependent

Body size is a key parameter influencing demographic characteristics of fish populations as well as market value of landed catch. Yet in bioeconomic modelling, body size is often an overlooked biological and economic parameter. Here we evaluate how size-dependent pricing influences optimal harvest strategies in a model parameterized for two pelagic fisheries, those targeting Atlantic herring ( Clupea harengus ) and Atlantic mackerel ( Scomber scombrus ), in Norway. In our model, positively size-dependent pricing clearly shifts optimal harvest strategies towards lower harvest rates and higher mean body size of caught fish. The results are relatively insensitive to biological (e.g., natural mortality) and economic details of the model (e.g., discount rate or demand function). These findings show that size-dependent pricing influences optimal harvest strategies aiming at maximum economic yield and, hence, requires more attention in resource economics and in fisheries management.

Bio-Economic Perspective to Fuelwood Policy Options in Uganda: A Demand–Supply Nexus

This study examines the benefits and costs of selected policy options for increasing fuelwood supplies or decreasing fuelwood demand in Hoima district, Uganda. On the supply side, a benefit-cost analysis is done on a government sponsored tree farming project. In order to reduce the demand for fuelwood, two demand-side options are considered, namely, introduction of an improved energy-efficient woodstove, and the substitution of a kerosene stove for a traditional woodstove. Greater understanding of the linkages among these factors requires a systems approach. We have proposed such an approach using a non-linear dynamic programming model to explore the system behaviour of forest degradation. Our results show that tree-farming is one of the possible approaches to increase the supply of fuelwood (energy), while the woodstoves and kerosene substitution are policies that reduce the demand for fuelwood. This helps to alleviate the rural energy shortage and take some pressure off existing protected forest areas. The tree cover in the forest areas declined by 6% in the BASE scenario, 4.8 % in POPG scenario and 4.7% in TECH scenario, indicating an overall trend of forest degradation in the Hoima district under each of these scenarios. Reductions in the population growth rate, introduction of improved agricultural technology and increase in the prices of major agricultural crops can help slow down the rates of forest decline. This study does not attempt to analyse the wider energy planning program that would be needed to understand accurately the various alternatives available in Uganda.

The Dimensions of Sustainability and the Neo-entrepreneurial Adaptation Strategies in Reindeer Herding in Finland

Abstract Current public discourse in Finland concerning reindeer herding has focused on the overgrazing problem and conflicts between herding and competitive forms of land use. Both herders and government administrators agree on the problems of herding, but conceptualize their causes differently. Administrators insist that sustainability in herding is reachable through bioeconomic management that unites biological metrics of sustainable systems with an economic efficiency calculus. However, we found that such policy erodes socio-cultural sustainability at the community level. It also encourages economic rationalization that leads to increased revenues but slower income growth, because it coexists with rising investment costs and decreasing producer prices caused by increased supply. Ecological sustainability is left unstable, because bioeconomic metrics focus only on partial environmental processes. This study sheds light on these intertwined trajectories by analyzing reindeer herders' efforts to reach both economic and ecological sustainability through neo-entrepreneurial strategies. The study was carried out by semi-structured interviews in 17 enterprises run by both Saami and Finnish reindeer herders. Interviews covered the working of both traditional herding and neo-enterprises and the consolidation of these efforts. The results show that the neo-entrepreneurial adaptation strategies enhance both economic and ecological sustainability, but create problems for socio-cultural sustainability. Introduction The purpose of this article is to analyze the sustainability of neo-entrepreneurial adaptation strategies of reindeer (Rangifer t. tarandus) herders in Finland. The secondary objective is to examine government management policies and their connections to the local adaptation. The main ethnography analyzes the emergence of entrepreneurial adaptation strategies among the reindeer herders in Finland. The studied enterprises have state authorization, hold a registered business name, or are corporate organizations like joint-stock companies. Here, these are called neo-enterprises in order to distinguish them from traditional operations. Whereas herders have traditionally butchered reindeer during round-ups in the field and sold whole carcasses or live reindeer directly to private individuals or large butchering companies, the neo-entrepreneurs use certified butchering facilities to process meat further into various products, which they themselves sell to end users, like restaurants. Usually the neo-enterprises also function independently of the traditional reindeer herding cooperatives (Figure 2 and Table 1). Applying St. Martins (2001) ideas, we term the dominant ideology of reindeer management the bioeconomics of herding. Its fundamental axioms are twofold. First, the biological component focuses on maximal sustainable yield metrics, related equilibrium assumptions and calculated optimum grazing pressures that, in theory, enable maximum renewal of reindeer pastures (Kumpula 2001; Riseth et al. 2004). Calving percentage and carcass weights are employed as complementary metrics of sustainable grazing pressure (Kumpula et al. 2004). Second, the common economic component, and a sign of exceeded ecological yield, has been the need for supplementary feeding that is considered an extra cost for herders. The paradigmatic maneuver is to select a few easily measured variables as the indicators of ecological and economic sustainability and assert that sustainability can be reached through the manipulation of these variables (cf. Mittarit porotalous 2003). However, though there have been recent attempts to broaden the bioeconomic perspective (Kumpula 2003; Kumpula et al. 2006; Kyllonen et al. 2006; Mattila 2006; Meristo et al. 2004), the socio-cultural sustainability of herding communities continues to be left out of the calculations. There is a persistent tendency to detach selected economic and ecological variables from a broader political, economic and ecological context (Jernsletten and Klokov 2002; Mittarit porotalous 2003). …

Water repellency: a whole-farm bio-economic perspective

A whole-farm bio-economic model was used to assess the profitability of innovations aimed at improving agricultural production on the non-wetting sands of wheatbelt farms of Western Australia. It was found that amelioration of water repellency might be an economical option for some farms in the northern wheatbelt of Western Australia. It was shown that a minimum of 30% increase in lupin yields and a 10% increase in wheat yields would be required before expenditure on innovations aimed at improving production on non-wetting soils could be justified. However, due to costs of amelioration of repellency much higher crop yield responses may be required for economical adoption of such innovations on most farms.The decision to ameliorate water repellency depends not only on the consideration of direct benefits and costs per hectare of ameliorated sand but also on other whole-farm factors. One such factor found to be important was the scale of relevance or the soil mix of the farm. It was found that farms with proportionately large areas of non-wetting sands were more likely to benefit from adoption of innovations aimed at amelioration of repellency. Another important factor in the decision to adopt innovations for amelioration of water repellency is availability of alternative enterprises on the non-wetting soils. In particular, whether or not sandplain lupins (lupinus cosentinii) and tagasaste (chamaecystisus proliferus) were options that a farmer could consider determined the profitability of taking remedial measures against water repellency.This study identified, through a series of sensitivity analyses, the magnitude of production responses that may be required for profitable amelioration of water repellency. Some gaps in our knowledge of biological and economic parameters related to costs and benefits of various innovations have also been highlighted and discussed.

Cannibalism and the Optimal Sharing of the North-East Atlantic Cod Stock: a Bioeconomic Model

This paper shows how intra-stock relations such as cannibalism and growth enhancement, determine the economically optimal sharing of a fish resource between heterogeneous harvesting agents. The sharing of resources between different vessel groups is often left for political decision making. Nonetheless, such decisions may have both biological and economic consequences. This becomes quite clear when different harvesting groups exploit different sections (age groups) of a stock that has intra-stock interactions in the form of cannibalism. A two-agent bioeconomic model with cannibalism is developed and used to determine (i) optimal annual harvest sizes (TACs) for cod, and (ii) the optimal proportion of the TAC that should be harvested by the different vessel groups in the fishery. Applying biological and economic data in a numerical procedure, and comparing the results obtained to previous studies, it is shown that intra-stock interactions such as the presence of cannibalism has a significant impact on who should take what proportion of the TAC, and hence, the standing stock size and discounted economic rent achievable. In contrast to other studies, we find that the optimal harvest requires that both trawlers and coastal vessels should harvest the fish resource. In addition, the results indicate that, from a bioeconomic perspective, the existing trawler fleet’s harvest share in the cod fishery is too high.

Progress and the economy of nature

Progress is a difficult concept, but the phenomenon itself seems to be more than just an illusion. In this paper we consider how a bioeconomic perspective can help to clarify matters, especially when we compare aspects of organic evolution to technological progress. Beginning with the influence of Malthus upon Darwin, we see how the latter's ideas differ in important respects from those of other biologists and from those of social scientists and philosophers. Consideration of biologist's views about competition and the reasons for specialization suggests ways in which matters might be clarified by a more 'entrepreneurial' view of the relationships of organisms to the natural economy.

Effort control in the New England groundfish fishery: a bioeconomic perspective

A multispecies model of the New England fishery was developed to investigate selected biological and economic implications of effort control on groundfish. Performance measures, such as catch, spawning stock biomass, and catch per unit effort, as well as harvest revenue and consumer surplus were used to compare and contrast different levels of effort. Results suggest that significant gains in biological and economic benefits are possible, but major reductions in effort and some short-term losses in catch would be required. Large increases in catch per unit effort on the order of 3–5 times current values would occur, especially for flatfish and haddock. Additional revenues of approximately $10–13 million (U.S.) per year would accrue after several years with overall reductions in effort on this complex of stocks. Changes in stock age-structure would contribute to additional revenues because of the interaction of fish size, price, and increased biomass. Consumers would eventually profit from the lower prices that accompany increased landings. Additional benefits may be obtained after stock rebuilding occurs by application of management measures that stockpile biomass in the initial years of a planning horizon and harvest accumulated stock later.

The Management of Shared Fishery Resources Under Extended Jurisdiction

The management of shared fishery resources is one of the prime management issues to have arisen as a consequence of Extended Fisheries Jurisdiction. This paper reviews the issue from a bioeconomic perspective. A major conclusion arising from this review is that it should in principle be possible for joint owners of shared resources to develop effective joint management programs, even though they may have significantly different views on optimal management strategy. Avenues of future research on the issue are also discussed.