Global, European and national drivers of Lithuanian bioeconomy strategy

This paper contributes to the comprehensive approach for sustainable and balanced development of bioeconomy as a cross-cutting economic sector and focuses on the drivers of Lithuanian bioeconomy strategy. Lithuanian bioeconomy strategy development can be motivated by country’s specialization and, compared with other EU member states, strong performance in terms of recent growth in all biomass production and fully bio-based manufacturing sectors. However, Lithuanian bioeconomy strategy depends not only on the current state and trends of its subsectors, but also on the drivers that will be forcing and shaping them in the future. The authors decomposed these drivers into global, European and national. Using content analysis of the EU, OECD and European countries’ legal acts, global drivers such as depletion of natural resources, growing population, increasing environmental pressures and climate change were identified. Applying content analysis of the EU and European countries’ bioeconomy strategies and analysis of case studies of good practices in European countries and regions, the following drivers at European level were identified: common EU bioeconomy policy, strategy and action plan; assurance of biomass availability and sustainability, as well as efficient biomass value chain; the need to strengthen markets and competitiveness of the bioeconomy subsectors; the necessity of close cooperation among all stakeholders, namely politicians, business people, scientists and the public; the need of the development of new technologies and processes, especially industrial biotechnology. The research revealed that the bioeconomy development in Lithuania has been regulated and promoted through certain sectoral policies: agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, environment (including waste management), scientific research, innovation and biotechnology development. In the future, the cross-sectoral links and interactions in the Lithuanian bioeconomy will increase due to the scarce biomass, applying the cascading principle in the biomass refinement, transition towards circular economy, and the development and implementation of innovations