Bioeconomy in brief

Bioeconomy is based on production that makes use of renewable natural materials in a sustainable manner and develops and deploys related innovations and technologies. Bioeconomy is implemented in a resource-wise manner through the circular economy.

In Finland, services that utilise nature, such as nature tourism, are also part of the bioeconomy. Bioeconomy operators are replacing fossil raw materials with more environmentally friendly ones and developing completely new materials. They produce food and clean water, products, services and energy, as well as industrial applications. Raw materials are obtained especially from forests, fields and water bodies, but also from various farms and by-products of production.

Finland’s Bioeconomy Strategy 2022–2035 aims sustainably towards higher value added.

Sustainable & Circular: Bioeconomy the European way

The European Commission defines the bioeconomy in the following manner: “The bioeconomy covers all sectors and systems that rely on biological resources (animals, plants, microorganisms and derived biomass, including organic waste), their functions and principles.

It includes and interlinks: land and marine ecosystems and the services they provide; all primary production sectors that use and produce biological resources (agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture); and all economic and industrial sectors that use biological resources and processes to produce food, feed, bio-based product, energy and services.”

Bioeconomy in numbers, Finland

See: Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)