The socio-environmental challenges in the transition to sustainable bioeconomy: a review

Abstract

The bioeconomy has been proposed worldwide as a way to combat global environmental and socio-economic challenges, from climate change to income diversification and food security. Consequently, the term "bioeconomy" has gained considerable attention in the economic field over the last 15 years. Interestingly, an alleged global sustainable development model has become the subject of intense sustainability debate among researchers in recent years. The sustainability of the bioeconomy itself remains unanswered today. Most of the previous studies on sustainable bioeconomy focused on the analysis of the impacts on technology related to environmental issues while overlooking the socio-environmental implications and excluding society. Meanwhile, various studies highlight potential socio-environmental negative impacts associated with the new economic model. It is possible that the increased use of biological resources could further compromise ecosystems and create increasing social and ethical issues. Furthermore, this economic model could bring new environmental challenges related to the excessive use of soil and water. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine and identify potential socio-environmental sustainability challenges and pitfalls that need to be addressed in order to ensure a successful transition to a sustainable bioeconomy. Following a systematic literature review, scientific studies and field reports were selected for this review after searching Google Scholar, Web of Science and Scopus databases. The results identified a number of potential key socio-environmental concerns related to the transition to the bioeconomy.