Handbook Of Research On Bioeconomy And Economic Ecosystems

Bioeconomy is an essential natural capital for life, citizen well-being, and societal prosperity. After decades of intense damaging use, pollution, and hydrological stress, Europe's ecosystems are acutely threatened with serious degradation. This situation not only means acute economic loss, but also entails catastrophic ecological, social, and cultural damage. Handbook of Research on Bioeconomy and Economic Ecosystems is a critical resource that explores the conservation of ecosystems and their biodiversity and discusses potential new challenges in terms of the economic, social, and environmental path for Europe and other regions of the world. Featuring research on topics such as bioeconomy, circular economy, and economic and social analysis, this book is ideally designed for city authorities, experts, officers, business representatives, economists, politicians, academicians, and researchers.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book defines the new field of "Bioeconomy" as the sustainable and innovative use of biomass and biological knowledge to provide food, feed, industrial products, bioenergy and ecological services. The chapters highlight the importance of bioeconomy-related concepts in public, scientific, and political discourse. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the authors outline the dimensions of the bioeconomy as a means of achieving sustainability. The authors are ideally situated to elaborate on the diverse aspects of the bioeconomy. They have acquired in-depth experience of interdisciplinary research through the university’s focus on “Bioeconomy”, its contribution to the Bioeconomy Research Program of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, and its participation in the German Bioeconomy Council. With the number of bioeconomy-related projects at European universities rising, this book will provide graduate students and researchers with background information on the bioeconomy. It will familiarize scientific readers with bioeconomy-related terms and give scientific background for economists, agronomists and natural scientists alike.

The idea that nature provides services to people is one of the most powerful concepts to have emerged over the last two decades. It is shaping our understanding of the role that biodiverse ecosystems play in the environment and their benefits for humankind. As a result, there is a growing interest in operational and methodological issues surrounding ecosystem services amongst environmental managers, and many institutions are now developing teaching programmes to equip the next generation with the skills needed to apply the concepts more effectively. This handbook provides a comprehensive reference text on ecosystem services, integrating natural and social science (including economics). Collectively the chapters, written by the world's leading authorities, demonstrate the importance of biodiversity for people, policy and practice. They also show how the value of ecosystems to society can be expressed in monetary and non-monetary terms, so that the environment can be better taken into account in decision making. The significance of the ecosystem service paradigm is that it helps us redefine and better communicate the relationships between people and nature. It is shown how these are essential to resolving challenges such as sustainable development and poverty reduction, and the creation of a green economy in developing and developed world contexts.

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 recent years, there has been a marked proliferation in the literature on economic approaches to ecosystem management, which has created a subsequent need for real understanding of the scope and the limits of the economic approaches to ecosystems and

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book defines the new field of "Bioeconomy" as the sustainable and innovative use of biomass and biological knowledge to provide food, feed, industrial products, bioenergy and ecological services. The chapters highlight the importance of bioeconomy-related concepts in public, scientific, and political discourse. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the authors outline the dimensions of the bioeconomy as a means of achieving sustainability. The authors are ideally situated to elaborate on the diverse aspects of the bioeconomy. They have acquired in-depth experience of interdisciplinary research through the university’s focus on “Bioeconomy”, its contribution to the Bioeconomy Research Program of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, and its participation in the German Bioeconomy Council. With the number of bioeconomy-related projects at European universities rising, this book will provide graduate students and researchers with background information on the bioeconomy. It will familiarize scientific readers with bioeconomy-related terms and give scientific background for economists, agronomists and natural scientists alike.

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.