The challenges of bioeconomy implementation considering environmental aspects in the Baltic States: an input-output approach

Abstract

. Bioeconomy is an important element of European Union political agenda. From all the three Baltic States, only Latvia has endorsed its bioeconomy strategy. However, these strategies and related discussions are mostly focused on the social and economic aspects of bioeconomy, but environmental aspects are not sufficiently addressed. One of the important elements of environmental sustainability of bioeconomy is resource efficiency. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of the researchers has analysed this aspect of bioeconomy. Therefore, in this study, we are aiming to evaluate the bio-resource usage and efficiency in the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 2015 by applying the environmentally extended multiregional input-output analysis. The results showed that in Latvia and Lithuania half of the resources used in the production are bio-resources, meanwhile in Estonia - only one third. Considering the consumption-based resource usage only one-third of these resources (in Estonia only 19 %) were bio-resources. Referring to land footprint results, the biggest consumption and production based land footprint is associated with the forest land, followed by the cropland and the pastures. Furthermore, Estonia is a net-exporter of the land footprint, but in Lithuania the situation was inverse and the highest share of the produced land footprint was consumed nationally. The highest efficiency of the land footprint was also observed in Lithuania, meanwhile, in Estonia, the main challenge remains how to enhance the bio-resource efficiency. To improve sustainability countries should stimulate higher value-added bioeconomy activities at the national level, intensify the substitution of the non-renewable resources and improve eco-efficiency of bioeconomy.