Definitions related to a sustainable and circular wood-based bioeconomy
Bioeconomy: the production, transformation, use and conservation of biological resources (bioresources).
It usually includes agriculture, fisheries, agro-food industries, the forestry and wood industry, and all other processing of bio-based materials, for example for construction and housing, textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, energy.
More accurately, the Global Bioeconomy Summit held in Berlin, Germany, defined the bioeconomy as follows:
The bioeconomy is the production, utilization, conservation, and regeneration of biological resources, including related knowledge, science, technology, and innovation, to provide sustainable solutions (information, products, processes and services) within and across all economic sectors and enable a transformation to a sustainable economy. (Global Bioeconomy Summit Communiqué, 2020).
Sustainability: the Brundtland Commission from the United Nations defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Sustainable development combines economic, social and environmental development.
Sustainable bioeconomy is the sustainable production, transformation, use and conservation of bioresources without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Sustainable bioeconomy is part of an inclusive green economy defined as improving human well-being and building social equity while reducing environmental risks and scarcities (UNEP)
Forest-based bioeconomy is the production, transformation, use and conservation of bioresources from forests.
FAO definition of forest (FAO, 2020):
- land spanning more than 0.5 hectares;
- with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ;
It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.
Wood-based bioeconomy or wood bioeconomy is the production, transformation, use and conservation of wood resources (including wood that doesn’t come from forests and recycling of wood products).
Circular economy promotes the retention of value and the reduction of environmental impacts while simultaneously reducing costs and creating economic opportunities. Policy considerations include establishing effective infrastructure for waste management and recycling, incentivizing extended product life cycles and intelligent product design, and ensuring that current regulations create no barriers to development or adoption of value-retention processes.
International Resource Panel, 2018: Redefining Value.
Circular economy systems retain the added value in products for as long as possible and transform waste into resource. They keep resources within the economy to generate a cycle based on resource recycling. When a product has reached end-of-life and of possible re-use, it becomes a new raw material to be used again and again and hence create further value. Transition to a more circular economy requires changes throughout value chains, from product design to new business and market models, from new ways of turning waste into resource to new modes of consumer behaviour.
European Commission communication COM(2014) 398 final.
Cascading use of wood is the efficient utilization of resources by using residues and recycled materials for material use to extend total biomass availability within a given system. Cascading at the market level (sectors and products) can be quantified through wood flow analysis. (Vis M., U. Mantau, B. Allen (Eds.) (2016) Study on the optimised cascading use of wood. No 394/PP/ENT/RCH/14/7689. Final report. Brussels 2016. 337 pages)
A wood biorefinery is a place where wood is chemically fractioned and sustainably processed into a variety of wood-based intermediate materials, to be further processed into diverse material and energy products. (based on International Energy Agency Task 42 Biorefining report)