Resilience Orientation of Bioeconomy Policies – A Global Perspective

The bioeconomy is increasingly attracting attention and policies to promote the transition from carbon-based to bio-based economies are proliferating around the globe, epitomized in the sprawling adoption of bioeconomy strategies, programs and plans. The sustainability of bio-based production systems, on which bioeconomy rests has become a major governance concern around the world and their resilience essential to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the range and evolution of bioeconomy policy, in particular with regard to sustainability, remains a fuzzy and underexplored subject, while resilience issues in bioeconomy policy have hardly received scholarly attention. This paper analyzes the resilience orientation of bioeconomy policies based on the approach of resilience and using resilience-enabling and constraining policy key characteristics. Specifically, we conduct a systematic qualitative-quantitative content analysis to assess how policy goals and instruments ad-dress resilience dimensions. In our analysis, we first, explain the preva-lence of resilience orientation types in bioeconomy policy documents, and second, discuss correla-tions between country political, social, economic, and environmental conditions and their resilience orientations. The research presented is part of the research project Policy Designs for Resilient Bioeconomies (PolDeRBio), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).