Resilience Challenges in Bioeconomy Policies: A Global Comparative Analysis

The sustainability of social-ecological systems has become a major concern in environmental policy and beyond, triggering many integrated cross-policy initiatives. An important example are bioeconomy strategies. Policies to promote a bio-based economy have been enacted in more than 50 countries around the world, often in response to the sustainability challenges posed by the fossil-based economy. However, the success and sustainability of the bioeconomy, in turn, depends on the resilience of the bio-based production systems on which it rests. Simultaneously, the continued delivery of the desired functions of these systems is potentially threatened by environmental, social, economic, and political short-term shocks and long-term stresses. Prudent bioeconomy policies would therefore identify potential disruptions and develop pro-active strategies to address them. However, little is known to what extent and which resilience challenges for a sustainable bioeconomy have been addressed in bioeconomy policies. To investigate the salience of resilience challenges in bioeconomy policies, we conducted a systematic content analysis of 78 national bioeconomy policy documents in 50 countries published between 2005 and 2020 to identify and discuss the specific challenges and the instruments directly aimed at addressing them. The results show that bioeconomy policy documents largely pay little attention to resilience challenges. If mentioned at all, challenges are mostly framed in economic terms, with few concrete instruments proposed to enhance resilience. Overall, the general neglect of resilience issues in global bioeconomy policymaking underscores the need for stronger foresight, cross-sector dialogue, and the explicit integration of resilience considerations into environmental management and bioeconomy policy design.