Regional action is needed to develop Europe’s bioeconomy!
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development asks for fundamental changes in the way that our societies produce and consume goods and services in order to secure prosperity, mitigate climate change, reduce waste and pollution and face depletion of fossil and non-renewable materials. The circular bioeconomy is a key element in this societal transformation.
Framework conditions for the bioeconomy
This socio-economic transformation requires a leap in the capacity to efficiently use and generate value from biological resources in order to achieve economic, social and environmental targets without increasing the pressure on the planet. In recent years, a significant amount of work has been devoted to understanding the framework conditions for the bioeconomy. These include, among others, the availability of biological resources, the support for innovation and development of knowledge and skills, the capacity to create new innovative bio-based products and circular business models, societal awareness and the demand for such products and services, as well as access to finance, increased investments and appropriate governance to provide and support a transformative, long-term framework.
Opportunities for cross-regional cooperation
European regions are diverse in terms of natural resources, biomass availability, economic and social structures, etc. Yet, they frequently face similar challenges. Many synergies can be achieved by sharing experiences and co-developing approaches to overcome existing barriers to change. Identifying and leveraging those synergies is a key aspect of this cross-regional cooperation, which has led to the establishment of the Bioregions Facility in February 2020.
The Bioregions Facility
The Bioregions Facility promotes transregional cooperation on shaping and implementing a sustainable and integrative forest-based circular bioeconomy among dedicated regions. The initiative facilitates knowledge-sharing and cooperation around the topics of innovation, institutions, infrastructures and investments, through a range of activities supporting networking, business discovery, access to funding, policy learning and awareness raising. The Facility connects forward-thinking regions across Europe to work together to unlock regional potential through international exchange on the forest circular bioeconomy. In this initiative, coordinated by the European Forest Institute (EFI), the three founding regions are the Basque Country (Spain), North Karelia (Finland), and North Rhine-Westphalia, (Germany). The Facility aims to attract further like-minded regions to extend its network and realise its full potential.
For more information contact the Bioregions Secretariat: giuseppe.tripodi @ efi.int | inazio.martinez @ efi.int