Article Preview
Top1. Introduction
Bioeconomy (BE) has emerged as a new economic paradigm and it is expected to be a key solution to supply societies with food and non-food products while replacing non-renewable resources and preserving natural ones (Wohlfahrt et al., 2019). In BE, new products and services are based on biomass or hybrid materials, and advancements in production and innovation along the value and supply chains are achieved via biotechnology and related means (D’Amato et al., 2017). Forest-based products are subjected to capacity, land availability, adjacency, and sustainability constraints. Such constraints demand specific ways of managing the value-chain of biomass product to ensure sustainability (Petridis, Grigoroudis, & Arabatzis, 2018). In this sense, the sustainability of bioeconomy systems is currently an issue that has to be addressed (Wohlfahrt et al., 2019).
Although linked to sustainable development, the social dimension of sustainability, or social sustainability, has gained less attention in BE literature than have the environmental and economic dimensions (Govindan, Shaw, & Majumdar, 2021; Salvador et al., 2021). The social dimension of BE has been limited to the economy of rural areas and the livelihoods in these locations, centered on the primary production systems including forestry, agriculture and fisheries (D’Amato et al., 2017; Sanz-Hernández, Esteban, & Garrido, 2019). A socially sustainable organization gives back to society rather than simply exploiting the resources made available to it, and takes some measure of responsibility for externalized costs and free goods (Galuppo, Gorli, Scaratti, & Kaneklin, 2014).
The emphasis on social sustainability by BE enterprises is essential in such environments as the Amazonian rainforest. On the one hand, conflicts over the Amazon rainforest land, as well as deforestation, cannot be ignored, mainly because the forest remains one of the highest in the world (González & Kröger, 2020). On the other hand, forests in tropical developing countries constitute a relevant part of the physical, material, economic, and spiritual life of millions of people living in and around such regions (Serrano et al., 2019). According to a UN report, the embattled indigenous and forest-dependent peoples of Latin America are by far the best guardians of the regions’ forests. However, the demand for beef, soy, timber, oil, and minerals means the threats to indigenous peoples and their forest homes have continued to rise (Hill, 2015). If properly managed, the forest sector can contribute significantly to regional development by helping to create new markets for advanced forest-based products (Reim, Parida, & Sjödin, 2019).
Thus, the situation in the Amazon brings particular challenges to researchers, entrepreneurs, policymakers and governors, citizens, and society in general: preserving the Amazon rainforest and other native forests, as well as local culture and indigenous traditions, while promoting sustainable development through BE. Appropriate response to these challenges should incorporate a deep focus on social sustainability, in which the dearth of research represents the weak link. Toward filling this research gap related to social sustainability in BE (D’Amato et al., 2017; Govindan et al., 2021; Salvador et al., 2021), this study aims to answer the question: “How could social sustainability of the forest-based bioeconomy enterprise in the Amazon rainforest be leveraged?”. This study focuses on non-timber forest-based BE, specifically in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, whereas most of the academic studies in the forest-based BE have been developed in the context of Europe (Lovrić, Lovrić, & Mavsar, 2020) or have been based on a systematic review of the existing literature (Reim et al., 2019).