Christopher Martius & Malte Kassner
10 December 2020
Delivering the circular bio-economy for low
emissions development

Globally, where do we stand?
Raworth (2017): Donut Economics UN Emissions Gap Report 2020
71 million people expected to be
pushed back into extreme poverty
in 2020
Pandemic: Underemployment /
unemployment reduced income of
1.6 billion vulnerable workers in the
informal economy by 60 per cent
>1 billion slum dwellers worldwide
acutely at risk from COVID-19
(housing, sanitation, health)
hundreds of thousands additional
under-5 deaths
tens of thousands of additional
maternal deaths
surge in domestic violence against
women and children
UN SDG report 2020

Delivering the circular bio-economy
for low emissions development
Going green
Developing new biomaterials from forests, plantations and agriculture
Traditional and innovative wood products
Choosing goals
Global societal debates and decisions on diets, products, land use, and emissions
Modeling and debate
Weaving it together
Advising businesses and developing coordination, integration and efficiency
across value webs
Integrating value chains, reducing waste

„SUPER-WOOD“ and „PLY-SCRAPERS“
Re-inventing wood building and processing technologies
Hardening,
stabilizing
Softening,
textiles
Building
technologies
Impermeabi-
lization
Adding
transparency
Adding new
qualities
(energy
storage)
Reflectance
(radiative
cooling)
Rubber,
bamboo
Substitution
of cement, plastic
and fossil fuels
New wood
technologies
grow sinks and
reduce emissions
Going green
…and wood, forest and bamboo products
Research
questions
• How much?
• How fast?
• How fair?
• …

Global societal debates and decisions
on production, land use, diets, and emissions
Choosing goals
Anually, every person on the planet uses 0.5 cubic meters of wood
0.8-1.8 billion hectares of additional reforestation will be needed for
carbon capture and BECCS (IPCC)
→ Can available land provide enough for the bio-economy and C sinks
together? If not, what takes priority?
Meat for burgers produces emissions – but half of the US maize
production gors itto sugar for soft drinks
→ is this food security?
Post-harvest food waste generates as many emissions as if it were the
third largest country by emissions
→how can we reduce these emissions?
= Ignored (missing) pathways to emission reduction

Developing coordination, integration and
efficiency across value webs
• conventional production systems champion efficiency towards
producing single end products
• But ‘waste is a design error’ (Gonzalo Muñoz)
• Closing production cycles, developing ideas for so-far unused
materials
• Integrated post-harvest biomass management across the food-
and non-food chains
• new jobs in the circular bioeconomy and substitution
• Advising businesses
• vocational training
• North-South as well as South-South and South-North learning
Weaving it together

Cross-cutting principles
• Early integration of developing countries
• underprivileged people(s); participative
Inclusive
• social and livelihood benefits; gender, youth
Socially responsible
• bulk of production streams
• high dynamic in peri-urban spaces
Rural-urban linkages

Social sustainability in a forest-based bio-economy
Opportunities and burdens in sub-Saharan Africa
• bioeconomy strategies so far focused on the
technological and economic aspect
• often leaving aside or taking for granted
matters of social sustainability: Who will be
winners and losers?
• forest sector in SSA still mostly traditional and
largely informal
• technologically innovative forest undertakings
still mostly missing
• non-timber forest products (NTFPs) critical for
income generation in bioeconomy development
• bioeconomy perspective could benefit (bio)-
energy security
Social sustainability
• Often mentioned to justify studies but not the subject of most,
and no hard data
• Forest activities associated with positive social outcomes in 1/3
cases, social outcomes negative or mixed in 2/3 of studies
• contradictory or uncoordinated forest and trade policies
• land tenure and trade: clash of formal and informal systems
• Trade prone to corruption
• marginalization of populations depending on forests
• elite capture: land grabbing, spatial injustice, displacement and
disempowerment of rural populations
• lack of knowledge and skills in sustainable forest management,
business management, entrepreneurship
• Missing finance and opportunities for investment

Next steps
December 2020
This workshop
January 2020
Target regions
workshop
(Bogor, Nairobi)
Proposal
development
February 2021
Donor
engagement
March 2021
CBA event

Delivering the
circular bio-economy
for low emissions
development
Let’s light this
flame!

Thank you!
foreststreesagroforestry.org | globallandscapesforum.org | resilientlandscapes.org
cifor.org | worldagroforestry.org
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) envision a more equitable world where forestry
and landscapes enhance the environment and well-being for all. CIFOR-ICRAF are CGIAR Research Centers.