FAO's Strategic Prorgamme Area on Sustainable Bioeconomy aims to strenghten the science-policy interface between the biological sciences and policy (agriculture, climate, environment etc)
The bioeconomy can be defined as the “sustainable production, utilization, and conservation of biological resources, encompassing knowledge, science, technology, and innovation, to deliver sustainable solutions across all economic sectors and facilitate a transition to a sustainable economy.”
The bioeconomy holds great potential for addressing global challenges and driving sustainable development. By utilizing renewable biological resources—such as crops, woody biomass, microorganisms, algae, and marine organisms—and new technologies, the bioeconomy can contribute to reducing dependence on fossil fuels, mitigating climate change, and promoting resource efficiency.
Thus, the bioeconomy can contribute significantly to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the climate change goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement.
On January 2015, at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) in Berlin, 62 Ministers of Agriculture agreed on the importance of opportunities provided by a sustainable bioeconomy, while ensuring food security and nutrition. FAO was therefore called to coordinate international work on bioeconomy by facilitating information exchange and providing policy advice to its members.
Since then, FAO provides policy guidance and technical support to assist policymakers in establishing and implementing national and regional strategies, action plans, and programmes to develop a sustainable and circular bioeconomy in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and other Multilateral Environmental Agreements.
Currently, 21 countries and 3 regions have a bioeconomy strategy, while an additional 17 countries are in the process of developing one. Many more have bioeconomy related strategies, that focus on the links between biotechnologies and policy or bioresources and policy alone.
FAO has been supporting countries in the development of such strategies, for instance in Namibia. The National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST), a coordinating agency under the Ministry of Higher Education, and FAO have been working together to develop Namibia’s Bioeconomy Strategy.Inter-ministerial coordination has led to the identification of existing bioeconomy initiatives. This was a first step in the development of a country strategy, making it easier to identify and prioritize national objectives.
A recently published flagship report of the International Advisory Council of Global Bioeconomy details the development of the bioeconomy science-policy interface country by country over the past years. You may want to select some additional case studies for your report from here: Dietz, T., Bogdanski, A., Boldt, C., Börner, J. ….Wehrheim, P. (2024). Bioeconomy globalization: Recent trends and drivers of national programs and policies. A report by the International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy (IACGB). Global_Bioeconomy_-_April_2024_IACGB.pdf
السيدة Anne Bogdanski