Conducted by VSU
, Started on 2023 -
Completed on 2028
Completed
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Many countries and international organizations promote the concept of the bioeconomy as the global solution to sustainable development. As developing countries face the challenge of fostering economic growth under the constraint of environmental regulation, the bioeconomy is touted as a means to bridge the development gap between agrarian economies and sustainable industrialization by creating industries based on biological resources and bioprocesses. In light of this goal, there has been significant technological innovation, but there remains a gap between this technical knowledge and socio-economic realities. This project aims to address the role that institutions, culture, and decision-making of individual actors play in the development of global bio-based value webs. The project focuses on a rapidly growing stream of biomass: residues from tropical forests for higher valued-added products and investigates their potential, socioeconomic and ecological implications, and market links in the global bioeconomy. This research spans three tropical regions: Latin America, West Africa, and Southeast Asia, connecting case studies in Costa Rica, Ghana, and the Philippines to European markets through evolving biomass-based value webs. As the shift from non-renewable to bio-based resources will increase the demand for biomass, utilizing primary agricultural and forest resources for bioenergy and products can jeopardize food security and heighten competitionwith other industries. Thus, agricultural residues offer an abundant and accessible alternative for which a number of technical applications have been developed. Further, while the rapid growth of tropical fruit exports has driven GDP growth, it is linked to a variety of social and ecological issues. Thus, the tropical fruit sector serves as a prime case study of a global agricultural value chain in transition to (i) understand the role of institutions, culture and decision- making of individual actors and (ii) examine the (unintended) consequences and positive and negative externalities of the emerging bioeconomy.
The main goal of this project is to bridge the gap between technical knowledge of the bioeconomy and socio-economic realities in developing countries. On the technical side, this study focuses on tropical fruit residues for higher value-added bio-products. The socio-economic side encompasses the adaptive capacity of individuals, markets, and institutions to change within the global bioeconomy. This capacity is determined in part by demographics, knowledge, financial stability, livelihood strategies, and social networks. This research project consists of three parts and is organized into nine work packages (WPs). In Part A, the goals are to develop a framework, integrate and synthesize knowledge across the several case studies to draw generalizable conclusions.
In Part B, the goal is to assess the potential of sustainable biomass residues as well as the socio-economic and ecological implications of residue valorization in developing countries. This assessment is expected to expand the current knowledge about residue valorization and inform technical researchers about the status of residues (e.g., availability, local adaptive capacity, attitudes). In Part C, the goal is to analyze market links between developing and developed countries (see Figure 2). The team is hopeful to identify solutions to bridge the gap related to the markets, innovation management, knowledge, and technology transfer. Looking forward to policymakers in both developed and developing countries being able to consider these recommendations in decision-making. Further, we expect that industries in both developed and developing countries can benefit from this research. The group consists of a junior research group leader, three doctoral candidates, and three visiting postdoctoral fellows. The research will be supported by five university collaborators in the case study countries, a multi-disciplinary advisory board, five stakeholders (NGOs, industry partners), and three affiliated projects.