Countries and regions around the world face a number of economic, environmentaland social challenges. Increased demand for energy, primary resources (agricultural,forestry and fishing), industrial products and services (healthcare in particular) putsignificant pressure on the sustainability of the ecosystems that support our society.One option to provide a more sustainable base for the economy would be the transitiontowards bioeconomy in which the importance of biotechnology and biomassbasedproduction to generate economic output is significantly greater than today.Bioeconomy is considered to encompass all economic activity connected with theutilization of renewable biological resources. The aim of this paper is to draw attentionto the importance of bioeconomy in the management of natural resources in the21st century, providing many answers to resolve the previous challenges togetherwith environmental preservation. The concept has gained scientific and political attentionduring the recent years, especially in Europe but also globally. From the reviewand analysis of the literature, this paper addresses the emerging bioeconomy,definitions and conceptual bases, and its great potential in different sectors of economicactivity and development of new products. Special emphasis is placed on thecase of the European Union. We present the concerns of European authorities at thislevel and best practices already in force in two Nordic countries that can be regardedas the beginning of a general transition to bioeconomy.
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