Amazonia holds the largest rainforest in the world with unparalleled biodiversity, abundant natural resources and home to almost 50 million people. The Amazonia region provides perfect ecological and social characteristics for Bioeconomy products and services to thrive, while Bioeconomy offers an alternative and transformative model to predatory forms of development that focus on extraction and unsustainable land use. Therefore, the Bioeconomy and the conservation of Amazonia are closely linked and interdependent.
To date, there is no unified or shared definition of Bioeconomy in Amazonia. Instead, the concept remains fluid – shaped by evolving approaches, concepts, or principles. In recent years, and in the absence of a common definition, many organizations, networks, and forums – directly or indirectly engaged in Bioeconomy – have opted to establish guiding principles to delimit eligible activities and/or exclude harmful practices. At the same time, as the Re-imagining Bioeconomy report suggests, agreeing on principles and parameters of bioeconomy can facilitate collaboration across public, private, non-profit sectors, and multilateral organizations, while driving coordinated international policies and actions.
The scaling up of Bioeconomy and creative economy is one of the five pillars of the IDB’s Amazonia Forever regional coordination program, which to date includes several initiatives, funds, networks, and projects. The Amazonia Coordination Unit at the IDB is responsible for leading these efforts and established last year an independent Advisory Panel that meets regularly to inform strategic thinking on challenges and realities of Amazonian territories. This panel is currently comprised of 13 organizations of Indigenous Peoples, traditional communities, afro-descendants, civil society, and research institutions. All members bring relevant, lasting and on-the-ground experience working across Amazonia.
With the aim of better understanding the different bioeconomy concepts and how they apply to Amazonia, the Amazonia Coordination Unit and the Advisory Panel engaged in a rich discussion on what is not considered bioeconomy and what it should be. As a result, a set of eight recommendations were elaborated and validated as input for guiding Amazonia Forever Bioeconomy interventions:
| What is Bioeconomy: | What is not Bioeconomy: |
| 1 – Maintaining and respecting the heterogeneity, structure and cycles of Biodiversity, promoting native species and forest services that allow the conservation of the ecological integrity and calendar. | Bioeconomy should not promote monoculture, even if it involves Amazonian products, let alone the introduction of exotic species. |
| 2 – Going beyond respecting traditional knowledge to being explicit about the value and economic contribution that comes from traditional knowledge along the knowledge value chain. | Bioeconomy should not just be about respecting traditional knowledge. |
| 3 – Respecting and incorporating Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants and Traditional Communities’ (IP.AD.TC) territorial rights and security issues integrally as part of the Bioeconomy approach. | Bioeconomy should not treat IP.AD.TC territorial rights and security issues only as a social aspect external to Bioeconomy. |
| 4 – Adapting to territorial contexts of a rapidly changing Amazonian economy to foster a resilient and viable bioeconomy in the long term. | Bioeconomy should not adopt a single definition for all countries nor be static. |
| 5 – Having a transformative role in replacing the conventional economy to ensure sustainable development of the Amazonia region. In addition, mechanisms must be created to stimulate, measure and monitor that bioeconomy is replacing conventional economy. | Bioeconomy should not be limited to activities on the margins/parallel to a conventional economy. |
| 6 – Fostering a Bioeconomy that is aligned with cultural identity, beliefs, values and local knowledge with the help of innovation, science and technology. | Bioeconomy should not be the imposition of exogenous values on IP.AD.CT/Amazonian peoples, such as entrepreneurship. |
| 7 – Understanding the important role that Amazonian cities play as a point of articulation with IP.AD.TC. and in issues such as access to services and markets. | Bioeconomy should not be understood as something that happens in rural spaces. |
| 8 – Being inclusive and participatory. | Bioeconomy should not be aimed at benefiting elites and increasing the social gap. |
While Bioeconomy holds promise for sustainable development in Amazonia, it should not be mistaken as a silver bullet. Bioeconomy itself is not going to save Amazonia, but as noted in the Re-imagining Bioeconomy and the New Bioeconomy in the Amazon reports, if well-articulated with strategies and investments that allow the territory to develop capacities to diversify economic activities and retain the value of final products, it has the potential to reverse deforestation, increase its resilience to climate change, protect biodiversity and halt natural catastrophes in Amazonia while also supporting cultural heritage important for the maintenance of the ecosystem.
The Amazonia Forever program, a regional coordination program that aims to scale up financing, share strategic knowledge for decision-makers, and enhance regional coordination to accelerate the sustainable, inclusive and resilient development of Amazonia and its eight countries.
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