Bioeconomy Strategy Research Articles

Strategie di valorizzazione della filiera foresta-legno in Calabria: il punto di vista dei portatori d’interessi

Abstract: In Italy, the value of bioeconomy is 251 billion € and more than 1.7 million of workforce is employed in this sector. The forest-wood chain cover about 15% of total value of bioeconomy. The consultation draft of Italian Bioeconomy Strategy was presented on November 22, 2016. This document identifies three macro-sectors (agrifood, marine bioeconomy, forestry and biobased industry) with the respective objectives and priorities. In addition, some Italian regions are organizing to devise a regional strategy detailing the key points of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and Italian Bioeconomy Strategy in accordance with local peculiarities. In order to develop a regional strategy for the forest sector it is important to investigate the social demands and needs involving the local stakeholders. The aim of the study is to investigate the stakeholders’ opinions of Calabria Region (Italy) about the priorities of forest-wood chain to include in the future regional bioeconomy strategy. The stakeholders’ opinions were collected through the face-to-face administration of a structured questionnaire to 99 local stakeholders. The respondents assessed the importance of a set of objectives aimed to enhance the forest-wood chain at local level (economic exploitation of wood products; diffusion of forest certification; orientation of production to market demand; coordination of forest-wood-energy chain’s actors; implementation of environmental and cultural forest values; improvement of the level of mechanization in wood processing; improvement of the efficiency of forestry workers). In addition, the respondents assessed the capacity of some specific activities to achieve the above mentioned objectives. The collected data were used to define two strategies aimed to enhance the forest-wood chain in Calabria Region. The results show that for the interviewed stakeholders the main three objectives are: the implementation of environmental and cultural forest values, the improvement of the efficiency of forestry workers, and the diffusion of forest certification. In addition, the stakeholders highlighted the importance of the activities of environmental education for the citizens and the professional training courses for the forest operators. Finally, the diffusion of forest certification is a key issue for the interviewed stakeholders. This issue can be achieved facilitating the access of the certified products to the market and creating a chain-of-custody system for the wood products.

Directionality across Diversity: Governing Contending Policy Rationales in the Transition towards the Bioeconomy

Although the bioeconomy has been embraced by many governments around the world as a way of responding to the grand challenge of climate change, it remains unclear what the bioeconomy is and how it can contribute to achieving these broad policy objectives. The aim of this paper is to improve our understanding of whether, and how, the bioeconomy includes contending rationales for governance and policy-making. In order to do this, we apply a typology of three bioeconomy visions onto the policy discourse on the bioeconomy. These visions are (1) a bio-technology vision; (2) a bio-resource vision; and (3) a bio-ecology vision. Based on a discourse analysis of 41 submissions to a public hearing on the development of a bioeconomy strategy in Norway, the paper explores the actors involved in shaping the new bioeconomy and analyses their positions on this emerging field. The paper finds that it is possible to categorise the consultative inputs into these three visions, and also that the bio-resource vision is predominant, which reflects the structure of the national economy. Moreover, the paper reflects upon how the contending visions observed imply negotiations and power struggles, which may hamper directionality in the current socio-technical transition.

Emergent Imaginaries and Fragmented Policy Frameworks in the Canadian Bio-Economy

Climate change means that countries like Canada need to find suitable transition pathways to overcome fossil-fuel dependence; one such pathway is the so-called ‘bio-economy’. The bio-economy is a term used to define an economic system in which biological resources (e.g., plants) form the basis of production and production processes. For example, it would involve the replacement of petroleum energy, inputs, chemicals, and products with bioenergy, biological inputs, bio-chemicals, and bio-products. A number of countries and jurisdictions have established policy strategies in order to promote and support the development of a bio-economy, exemplified by the European Union where the bio-economy represents a key pillar in its broader Horizon 2020 strategy. Other countries, like Canada, do not yet have an over-arching bio-economy strategy, but have a series of diverse, and often competing, policy visions and frameworks. It is useful to analyse countries like Canada in order to understand how these policy visions and policy frameworks are co-constituted, and what this might mean for the development of an over-arching bio-economy strategy. This raises a number of questions: How is the bio-economy imagined by different social actors? How are these imaginaries and policy frameworks co-produced?

Biorefineries in Sweden: Perspectives on the opportunities, challenges and future

AbstractA growing political interest in the development of biorefineries is being shaped by climate change and a need to develop economically viable substitutes (i.e., fuels, products and chemicals) to those produced in traditional oil refineries. The pulp and paper industry in Sweden has been stagnating and it is therefore potentially promising to integrate biorefining into its activities as one way of diversifying its business. Sweden has good prerequisites for a transition to a bioeconomy due to its natural geographic conditions, industry, and infrastructure. It has developed a bioeconomy strategy and piloted several biorefinery projects. At the same time, the deployment of biorefineries has been slow, and they have not reached commercial scale. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the current and future development of biorefineries in the context of the emerging bioeconomy in Sweden. It is based on a literature review, policy analysis, and ten interviews with bioeconomy experts. It maps key political and legal aspects, economic and raw material aspects, social and cognitive aspects, and technology and infrastructure aspects that facilitate and hinder the development and deployment of biorefineries in Sweden. This paper identifies four action points important to the development of biorefineries and the bioeconomy: (i) commitments – establish targets and policies that drive the transition; (ii) contradictions – improve alignment on visions, goals, and activities; (iii) capacity – build up infrastructure and competences to harness the potential; and (iv) collaboration – develop cooperation across sectors and between actors. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Possible Futures towards a Wood-Based Bioeconomy: A Scenario Analysis for Germany

Driven by the growing awareness of the finite nature of fossil raw materials and the need for sustainable pathways of industrial production, the bio-based economy is expected to expand worldwide. Policy strategies such as the European Union Bioeconomy Strategy and national bioeconomy strategies foster this process. Besides the advantages promised by a transition towards a sustainable bioeconomy, these processes have to cope with significant uncertainties as many influencing factors play a role, such as climate change, technological and economic development, sustainability risks, dynamic consumption patterns and policy and governance issues. Based on a literature review and an expert survey, we identify influence factors for the future development of a wood-based bioeconomy in Germany. Four scenarios are generated based on different assumptions about the development of relevant influence factors. We discuss what developments in politics, industry and society have a central impact on shaping alternative futures. As such, the paper provides a knowledge base and orientation for decision makers and practitioners, and contributes to the scientific discussion on how the bioeconomy could develop. We conclude that the wood-based bioeconomy has a certain potential to develop further, if adequate political framework conditions are implemented and meet voter support, if consumers exhibit an enhanced willingness to pay for bio-based products, and if among companies, a chance-oriented advocacy coalition of bioeconomy supporters dominates over proponents of fossil pathways.

Substitution potentials of recycled HDPE and wood particles from post-consumer packaging waste in Wood–Plastic Composites

The market share of Wood–Plastic Composites (WPC) is small but expected to grow sharply in Europe. This raises some concerns about suitable wood particles needed in the wood-based panels industry in Europe. Concerns are stimulated by the competition between the promotion of wooden products through the European Bioeconomy Strategy and wood as an energy carrier through the Renewable Energy Directive. Cascade use of resources and valorisation of waste are potential strategies to overcome resource scarcity. Under experimental design conditions, WPC made from post-consumer recycled wood and plastic (HDPE) were compared to WPC made from virgin resources. Wood content in the polymer matrix was raised in two steps from 0% to 30% and 60%. Mechanical and physical properties and colour differences were characterized. The feasibility of using cascaded resources for WPC is discussed. Results indicate the technical and economic feasibility of using recycled HDPE from packaging waste for WPC. Based on technical properties, 30% recycled wood content for WPC is feasible, but economic and political barriers of efficient cascading of biomass need to be overcome.

The Bioeconomy Model in Future Sustainable Development

Abstract The future of sustainable development is the bioeconomy with the ―global‖ solution; both global and local action for developed the renewable energy generation. When local solutions are implemented is being laid for global solutions are positive affect the national economy. The implementation of the bioeconomy strategy used by society to prevent urgent problems, such as increasing competition for natural resources, climate change, rural sustainable development. The bioeconomy is a new economic and social order and promotes systemic change from using non-renewable resources to renewables. Bioeconomy reveals that production, which involves the transformation of a limited stock of matter and energy, but respecting the same laws that govern entropy closed systems, the entropy or unavailable matter and energy in the forms tend to increase continuously. Economic growth not only increases the apparent output per unit of inputs, which is performed using finite stock of matter and energy in the world. The current economy is based on fossil fuels and other material inputs suffering entropic degradation, both in the raw material extraction and pollution. The production, even if technical progress leads to lower overall yields. The idea of a steady state as the final economic growth that perpetuated indefinitely pendulum model is an impossibility

"Perspectives On Developing The Bioeconomy Secotor In Romania "

In the context of the new aim of the European Bioeconomy Strategy and Action Plan the development of the bioeconomy sector is a necessity for Romania in order to pave the way to a more innovative, resource efficient and competitive society, that reconciles food security with the sustainable use o renewable resources for industrial purposes. Romania has good perspectives in this field due to a great potential of the agriculture, increasingly growing standards of food industry, applied research in the pharmaceutical industry, safety and optimization of food products, the value of the biomass produced by the horticultural, forestry, livestock, fishery sectors and biofuels. On the premise that Romania hasn’t yet a bioeconomy strategy and/or policies in this field, the objective of this study is to identify the fundamental elements that could help Romanian Government build a customized bioeconomy strategy and/or plan of action. The method used is based on analyzing the best practices used by countries that already trigged the development of their bioeconomy sectors. The result of this study is to offer a scientific base for theory and practice in the bioeconomy field.

Fruit waste streams in South Africa and their potential role in developing a bio-economy

Current and previous studies on bio-based (fruit) wastes and wastewaters, with a particular emphasis on research in South Africa, were reviewed. Previous studies have focused predominantly on the beneficiation and application of fruit waste as a feedstock for renewable energy. A definite gap in knowledge and application of fruit waste streams with regard to enzyme production as a value-added product is identified. The characteristics and composition of each type of fruit waste are highlighted and their potential as feedstocks in the production of value-added products is identified. The conversion of agri-industrial wastewaters to bioenergy and value-added products is discussed, with special mention of the newly published South African Bio-Economy Strategy, and the potential production of biofuels and enzymes from waste streams using recombinant Aspergillus strains. Finally, to maximise utilisation of waste streams in South Africa and abroad, a conceptual model for an integrated system using different technologies is proposed.

Natural capital and bioeconomy: challenges and opportunities for forestry

Over the last decades, the stock of natural capital has been globally reduced by human-induced effects such as climate change, and land use and cover modifications. In particular, the continuous flow of goods and services from ecosystems to people is currently under threat if the current human activities still remain unsustainable. The recent bioeconomy strategy is an important opportunity to halt the loss of biodiversity and the reduction of services provision, from global to local scale. In this framework, forest sector plays a fundamental role in further enhancing the sustainable development and the green growth in degraded environments, such as marginal and rural areas. This paper provides an overview of the bioeconomy-based natural resources management (with a focus on forest ecosystems), by analyzing the related challenges and opportunities, from international to national perspective, as in Italy. At first, the role of forest sector in addressing the purposes of green growth is analyzed. Secondly, the most suitable tools to monitor and assess natural capital changes are described. Finally, the most important research contributions within the bioeconomy context are reported. To create the suitable conditions for bioeconomy and green growth, the following insights have to be denoted: (i) a deeper understanding of natural capital and related changes; (ii) the improvement of public participation in decision-making processes, especially at landscape scale; (iii) the effective integration of ecological, socio-cultural, and economic dimensions while managing natural resources.

Biomass streams in Austria: Drawing a complete picture of biogenic material flows within the national economy

In order to achieve the targets defined in the European Union's “Low Carbon Roadmap”, the “Energy Roadmap 2050” and the “Bioeconomy Strategy”, an enhanced use of biomass is required; not only for energy but also for material uses. In this context and to facilitate targeted resource and energy policy measures, profound knowledge of the status quo of biomass utilization is of crucial importance.The core objective of this paper is to provide complete flow diagrams of the biomass streams within the Austrian economic system from a meso-scale perspective, taking into account all types of uses. Contrary to material flow accounts (MFA), internal streams (e.g. due to biomass processing and transformation, recycling and reuse of residues and by-products, stock changes of end-consumer products) are explicitly taken into consideration and quantified. This approach reveals gaps and inconsistencies in statistical data and facilitates conclusions about quantities not recorded in statistics. Furthermore, the structure of biomass use is visualized and the extent of biogenic material reuse and recycling is revealed.The results show that biomass imports to Austria surpassed exports by about 15% in 2011 (based on dry mass). The distribution of biomass among the different uses depends on whether direct consumption or final uses are considered. In the latter case, which is considered more appropriate, inland biomass consumption was distributed as follows: 7% human food, 18% raw material, 38% energy and 37% animal feed. Exports are primarily composed of wood products.Contrary to common assumption, energy recovery is still usually the ultimate step of cascadic biomass use rather than primary purpose, or based on by-products. Judging from wood quantities being processed and consumed and foreign trade data, domestic wood supply according to felling reports (and stated as “domestic extraction used” in official MFA data) is clearly underrated. Conversely, domestic feed production according to MFA data is inconsistent with official animal feed statistics and appears to be overestimated by at least 30%.

Balancing the bioeconomy: supporting biofuels and bio-based materials in public policy

Key objectives for a bioeconomy are now embedded in the strategic activities of more than 30 countries, with an increasing number developing a national bioeconomy strategy.

Laccase applications in biofuels production: current status and future prospects.

The desire to reduce dependence on the ever diminishing fossil fuel reserves coupled with the impetus towards green energy has seen increased research in biofuels as alternative sources of energy. Lignocellulose materials are one of the most promising feedstocks for advanced biofuels production. However, their utilisation is dependent on the efficient hydrolysis of polysaccharides, which in part is dependent on cost-effective and benign pretreatment of biomass to remove or modify lignin and release or expose sugars to hydrolytic enzymes. Laccase is one of the enzymes that are being investigated not only for potential use as pretreatment agents in biofuel production, mainly as a delignifying enzyme, but also as a biotechnological tool for removal of inhibitors (mainly phenolic) of subsequent enzymatic processes. The current review discusses the major advances in the application of laccase as a potential pretreatment strategy, the underlying principles as well as directions for future research in the search for better enzyme-based technologies for biofuel production. Future perspectives could include synergy between enzymes that may be required for optimal results and the adoption of the biorefinery concept in line with the move towards the global implementation of the bioeconomy strategy.

Academic Entrepreneurship and Scientific Innovation in Context of Bio-economy Strategy

Innovation has been placed in the center of the EU 2020strategyfor growth andjobcreation. Member States are encouragedto investin research and developmentin 2020(1% ofpublic funds, 2% of private investments), which is estimated to generate 3.7 million jobs and would lead to annual increase EU GDP by about 800 billion euro.Europeanbio-economystrategiesdirectinginnovationeffortstowardssolving the main current challenges: energy, food security, climate change, etc. The public sectorwill be usedto stimulatethe private sector andremove bottleneckswhich preventideasreach the market, including lack of capital, fragmented research systems and markets.Currently, there are two main theoretical approaches entrepreneurial university: addressing broader conception of the university as a producer for intellectual and social capital in society and then arrow perspective on the optimization commercialize university research and financing function. This paper explores the relationship between bio-economy strategy and the scientific innovation to promote entrepreneurial activity.

Dosage-mortality studies of a granulosis and a nuclear polyhedrosis virus of a laboratory strain of Heliothis armigera

Invertebrate pests pose a significant threat to food security on the African continent. In response, South Africa has become one of the largest importers of chemical pesticides in sub-Saharan Africa, with several hundred active ingredients registered. To address the over-reliance on such chemicals, the South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) has eliminated or restricted several pesticides since the late 1970s. The recent launch of the South African National Bio-Economy Strategy and establishment of the South African Bioproducts Organisation (SABO), together with new guidelines for registration of biopesticides in 2015, also support this endeavour. Concurrently, entomopathogen-related research and bioproduct development has increased over the past decade. Currently, 31 products (seven manufactured locally) are registered under the Fertilizers, Farm Feeds, Agricultural Remedies and Stock Remedies Act 36 of 1947. Commercially important microbes include Beauveria bassiana (Cordycipitaceae), Metarhizium anisopliae (Clavicipitaceae), Cydia pomonella granulovirus, Cryptophlebia leucotreta granulovirus, Helicoverpa armigera nucleopolyhedrovirus (Baculoviridae) and Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki and B. thuringiensis subsp. aizawai (Bacillaceae). Both parasitic and entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) show potential for development as bioinsecticides with one commercial EPN product, based on Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Heterorhabditidae), registered under the Act. Rapid scientific progression, supported by a favourable legislative environment, should facilitate further advances in microbial control of phytophagous invertebrate pests in South Africa.