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Search this online library featuring the latest FAO publications, issue papers and briefs which offer up-to-date knowledge and innovative insights for SDG acceleration.

Sustainability by numbers - Forest products at FAO
2023

Over more than three-quarters of a century, FAO’s work on forest product statistics has made the Organization the recognized authority for data fundamental to what we now call the global bioeconomy. Forest product data are essential in monitoring impact and innovation in the global wood industry; responding to climate change by calculating carbon emissions; and developing equitable policies that uphold ecosystem services and forest values for our communities.

Sustainable and circular bioeconomy in the biodiversity agenda - Opportunities to conserve and restore biodiversity in agrifood systems through bioeconomy practices
2022

The sustainable management of biodiversity contributes to addressing food and nutrition security, enhancing resilience, and providing livelihoods to local and indigenous communities that can diversify their activities and generate income.

Sustainable and circular bioeconomy in the climate agenda: Opportunities to transform agrifood systems
2022

The bioeconomy offers opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions along the agrifood system by replacing fossil-based resources and processes with biological ones, from microbiome innovations, biofertilizers and biopesticides, to alternative proteins, bio-based plastics and textiles, and biological waste management, to name just a few. A sustainable and circular bioeconomy also presents opportunities to improve climate change adaptation and resilience,...

Aspirational principles and criteria for a sustainable bioeconomy
2022

To promote the production, utilization, conservation and regeneration of biological resources in ways that support global food and nutrition security and sustainable development, it is necessary to have a holistic vision for a sustainable and circular bioeconomy. Through the International Sustainable Bioeconomy Working Group (ISBWG), a multistakeholder group established in 2016,...

The future of food and agriculture – Drivers and triggers for transformation
2022

This report aims at inspiring strategic thinking and actions to transform agrifood systems towards a sustainable, resilient and inclusive future, by building on both previous reports in the same series as well as on a comprehensive corporate strategic foresight exercise that also nurtured FAO Strategic Framework 2022–31. It analyses major drivers of agrifood systems and explores how their trends could determine alternative futures of agrifood, socioeconomic and environmental systems.

Enabling substitution by wood-based products and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals
2022

This report addresses the role of forest products in replacing fossil-based and GHG-intensive products. The overarching objective is to provide recommendations to strengthen the contribution of substitution by forest products to sustainable development. To that end, this report firstly provides an overview of the understanding of the bioeconomy and the role of forest products across the world...

How to mainstream sustainability and circularity into the bioeconomy? A compendium of bioeconomy good practices and policies
2021

This Compendium outlines 250 sources of good practices and policies. It covers the entire continuum of economic sectors that have a stake in biological knowledge and resources. The Compendium, therefore, highlights the wide range of aspects that are included in the concept of the bioeconomy.

Guidance note on monitoring the sustainability of the bioeconomy at a country or macro-regional level
2021

This guidance note describes a series of general steps to establish an effective and robust system to monitor the sustainability of the bioeconomy in a given country or macro-region. This note builds on lessons learned from existing experiences of national and macro-regional bioeconomy monitoring systems. It was jointly developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC),...