Dear Colleagues,

Areas of nature are becoming scarce while the size of the human footprint is increasing at an exponential speed. However, humans cannot survive without nature. One of the main reasons for grand environmental challenges is the incomplete (commercial) valuation of natural resources in terms of exploitation cost and full value of products, which leads to the overexploitation of natural capital. In terms of economies, the significance of the bioeconomy sector is increasing, very likely leading to future challenges in the availability of bioresources unless a sustainable systemic transition is investigated and promoted throughout the value chain, promoting the full valuation of various products. As opposed to the existing linear and open-ended bioeconomy systems, a sustainable bioeconomy requires both structural and functional changes in both production and consumption by means of simultaneously technological, institutional, and social changes across numerous sectors. The future pathways require system-wide change involving society, governments, and industries.

The disciplines of natural resource economics and sustainable transition of bioeconomy aim at solving the grand challenge of human and nature co-existence. Natural resource economics investigates and develops frameworks for supply, demand, and allocation of the Earth’s natural resources. One main objective is to develop more sustainable methods of managing those resources to ensure their availability for future generations through understanding the role of natural resources in the local and global economies. Bioeconomy integrates natural resource management with technologies, economies, and societies. Bioeconomy is a concept emphasizing the comprehensive role of natural resources and innovative biomass-based products in the emergence of low-carbon economies, increasing new employment opportunities and offering wide-spanning public benefits. Achieving sustainable transition of the bioeconomy system  requires better understanding of potential new social and technological innovations, systemic sustainable transition mechanisms, sustainable transition within the carrying capacity of the nature, and positive and negative trade-offs within a safe operation space.

This Special Issue will focus on exploring sustainable future pathways for bioeconomy through the research focused on natural resource economics, sustainable transition of the bioeconomy system, and/or integration of these disciplines. Authors are encouraged to submit studies that look at futures of societies through sustainable natural resource economics and sustainable transition of the bioeconomy system from the viewpoints of sustainable operation space, socio technological innovations, sustainable businesses and services, sustainable value creation, and sustainable transition in order to strengthen our understanding on the transition towards sustainable societies.

Dr. Mirja Mikkilä
Guest Editor

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• bioeconomy
• circular bioeconomy
• futures studies
• natural resource economics
• planetary boundaries
• sustainability transition
• systemic transition