Analysis of bioeconomy strategies
Ανάλυση στρατηγικών βιοοικονομίας
Master Thesis
Author
Κολλάρου, Αννέζα
Kollarou, Anneza
Date
2020-10View/ Open
Keywords
Bioeconomy ; Sustainability ; European Bioeconomy Strategy ; Mediterranean Basin ; France ; Italy ; Spain ; Greece ; Circular bioeconomy ; National strategies ; Key goals ; Priority areasAbstract
During the last decades, our planet is dealing with more and more global challenges such as worldwide population growth, depletion of fossil raw materials, inadequate food production, climate change, and many environmental problems. As a result, the implementation of sustainable bioeconomy is considered a general solution through its nature.
However, bioeconomy is a multidimensional concept that includes economic, environmental, and social dimension, and there is no universally agreed definition. It depends on somebody’s perspective and the field that he is involved in. Thus, international institutions and governments attempt to identify the notion of circular and sustainable bioeconomy. From those definitions, legislation, policies, and strategies are being developed and implemented continuously, which is exactly why defining bioeconomy is critical.
The concept of bioeconomy took several years to mature as a political strategy and a global idea. Therefore, a global upward trend in the growth of bioeconomy policy has continued since 2015. Basically, in order to achieve global implementation of sustainability, bioeconomy has to become the guiding concept at any country’s level.
The development of the bioeconomy as a national strategy depends on the various interactions among the different factors such as public and private stakeholders, primary sectors, new technologies, human resources, innovating research, demand-side, and societal factors. Each country should follow a basic set of principles that include accountability, transparency, participation in Strategy Formulation, effectiveness, coherence, fairness, and policy initiatives.
As a result of the general bioeconomy concept, the first European Bioeconomy Strategy was announced in 2012 aiming at a sustainable, circular bioeconomy across Europe, an alignment of
economic-techno-socio- environmental landscape, optimize impact within sectors of the bioeconomy. In this way, bioeconomy strategy intends to provide a long-term balance of economic, environmental, and social profits combing the sustainable use of renewable resources for feed, food, bio-based products, and bioenergy, with the restoration and protection of biodiversity, ecosystems, and natural resources across water and land in Europe and beyond.
Considering the importance of the decentralized and local dimension of bioeconomy, three different European countries of the South and especially the Mediterranean basin – France, Italy, and Spain are analyzed. In particular, the bioeconomy-related strategy, the author, the key goals, the priority areas, the action plan, and measures for promoting the strategy of each country are listed.
In the last part of the thesis, it focuses on Greece as a European country and the bioeconomy perspective of Greece.
Taking into account the cruel financial crisis since 2009, bioeconomy-related strategies are presented as well as the key goals and the priority areas. Moreover, some proposals are identified which can support bioeconomy and strengthen Greece generally.