The Contribution of Sustainable Development Goals and Forest-Related Indicators to National Bioeconomy Progress Monitoring

Abstract

A sustainable and circular bioeconomy is a pathway to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 because the bioeconomy relates to a number of SDGs. We therefore focused on whether and how these SDGs are considered in national bioeconomy strategies, and on their indicator-based progress monitoring and assessment. This paper is based on eight countries that already have elaborated indicators in their national bioeconomy strategies. We analyzed the coverage of SDG issues in national bioeconomy strategies and the indicators used. We focused on how the different national indicators used to monitor the progress of the bioeconomy are related to the SDGs indicators and the already well established and widely applied intergovernmental regional or international forest-related indicators, as the forest sector is one of the key sectors for the development of a bioeconomy. Our material and methods are based on a document review and qualitative analysis of national bioeconomy strategies and their inherent indicator sets for progress monitoring. Based on our findings on the coverage of SDG-related issues of up to 14 out of the 17 SDGs in the bioeconomy strategies and of the high share of forest-related indicators within the bioeconomy indicators used, we derive recommendations for the further development of bioeconomy indicators. Our paper does not contribute to proposing the most suitable indicators, but it does encourage national and regional actors to carefully and holistically develop their bioeconomy monitoring systems using synergies from the already existing SDGs and forest monitoring processes.

Development of the Circular Bioeconomy: Drivers and Indicators

“…In the Netherlands, a bio-based economy monitor protocol to quantify the size and monitor its development was established already in 2013 [92]. However, so far there is, except for the efforts by the EC, no common and holistic approach to monitor and measure the bioeconomy across EU states and, therefore, it is not possible to compare the results between countries [91,93]. Furthermore, the majority of countries measure their bioeconomy not comprehensively using only economic indicators [91].…”

More Sustainable Bioenergy by Making Use of Regional Alternative Biomass?

“…In redesigning the bioenergy sector, local knowledge, public health, and the community's resilience should not be neglected, while social-environmental benefits should be considered in addressing the viability of bioenergy plants [1]. For the time being, integration of bioenergy in a broader bioeconomy is an ambition rather than a substantiated way [7][8][9]. This study has already demonstrated the diversity of options and implications of bioenergy.…”

“…Subsequently, the SDGs have been of growing relevance at regional and national levels, providing both aims and advice for taking action. Although the SDGs have been formulated for universal application, their implementation and indicator assessments need to reflect specific circumstances of a given national and regional context [7]. Energy represents one SDG (Affordable and Clean Energy) with priorities on renewables.…”

Development of a bioeconomy monitoring framework for the European Union: An integrative and collaborative approach

“…This system shares some critical characteristics with the EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System: they both need to capture aspects of complex interconnected systems, involving a large number of sectors at different geographical levels. Since the scope of the SDGs is wider than that of the bioeconomy, the seventeen SDGs and their specific targets constitute a “checklist” to assess the full coverage of sustainability aspects within the bioeconomy monitoring framework (see e.g [ 44 , 45 ].). In some cases, where the bioeconomy is the principal driver, the indicators can be similar, for example in the case of SDG targets 2.4 (Ensure sustainable food production systems) or 15.2 (Promotion of sustainable forest management).…”