CERE Working Papers,
CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics

Abstract: This report describes the concepts of bioeconomy, sustainability, and circularity, as well as how they relate to each other. Using forests and forestry sectors as illustration, this report also discusses how a sustainable circular bioeconomy may be conceptualized. Bioeconomy is a concept permanently evolving due to its major role in political and economic debates, in particular in the EU. In recent times, the bioeconomy concept has been connected to circularity to further enhance sustainability and promote development of a bio-based economy. Forests have a key role in the development of the bioeconomy as they provide biomass that can replace fossil fuel–based materials. However, a forest-based bioeconomy is dependent on a balance between biomass production and sustainable ecosystem management. Thus implementation of a forest-based bioeconomy should take into account the environmental limits of new biotechnologies and value chains that require massive amounts of bioresources, and it must follow a sustainable development path that recognizes the innovative processes that can drive the bioeconomy forward.

Keywords: bioeconomy; circular economy; forest sector

JEL-codes: Q50; Q57

Language: English

30 pages, May 19, 2022

Download statistics

• CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics
• Home page for this series

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Mona Bonta Bergman ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

This page generated on 2024-02-05 17:13:36.