Bioeconomy and ecosystem services

The increasing demand for food, energy, and biodiversity, as well as the need for natural capital conservation and resilience to climate change, are major challenges worldwide. The transition towards the bioeconomy can concretely improve the provision of private and public goods that enhance human well-being. Despite the growing literature, contributions, trade-offs, and conflicts of bioeconomy development within ecosystem services provision still need to be addressed satisfactorily. This paper aims to investigate the possible pathways for building a sustainable and resilient transition towards the bioeconomy, with a focus on ecosystem services, based on a literature review and content analysis. The sustainability of the transition towards the bioeconomy is grounded in replacing carbon-based production and processes, but the bioeconomy involves much more. In particular, the focus on the provision of ecosystem services broadens the scope of investigation and highlights the need to address a wide variety of inputs while connecting this with perceptions, decision-making, and governance systems. New conceptual and empirical approaches to research and decision-making are needed for a transformative approach to these challenges.