SABio – Página: 2

24maiomaio 24, 2023

Karen Siegel convidada para a Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina) como Professora Visitante

Karen Siegel was invited by Juan Staricco and Mónica Buraschi to visit the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Argentina in March 2023 with funding by the programme for visiting professors of the Facultad de Ciencias Económicas.

During her stay she gave a public lecture on sustainability and bioeconomy governance in the global political economy and participated in an academic publishing workshop on public policy in biofuels, circular economy, sustainability in global value chains and other topics. She also met the members of the PICT research project which investigates the possibilities for a circular bioeconomy in different Argentinean provinces, Mónica Buraschi, Celina Amato, Sofia González and Florencia Peretti.

The Universidad Nacional de Córdoba has published more information, photos and an interview about the visit.

28abrmaio 24, 2023

Seminário virtual com Tim Dorlach (University of Bayreuth) em 10 de maio

Pesticide Politics in the Global South: Sri Lanka’s 2015 Glyphosate Ban (Tim Dorlach and Sandya Gunasekara)

Tim Dorlach is a Junior Professor of Global Nutrition and Health Policy at the University of Bayreuth. He received his PhD in Political Science from Koç University in Istanbul in 2019. His research seeks to understand the political foundations of innovative public policies, especially in the areas of nutrition and health. Current research projects investigate mandatory nutrition labeling, pesticide regulation and school feeding programs, all with a focus on the Global South.

Please e-mail Karen.Siegel@uni-muenster.de if you would like to participate in the seminar

28abrmaio 24, 2023

Seminário híbrido com Karen Siegel em 4 de maio

Alle möchten Nachhaltigkeit: aber was bedeutet das eigentlich?

Many different actors nowadays state their support for a sustainability transition. However, the concept of sustainability remains very broad and can be interpreted and implemented in many different ways. In this seminar Karen Siegel looks at different case studies from South America to examine how different actors define “sustainability” in relation to key bioeconomy sectors, notably agriculture and forestry. This uncovers important contestations and conflicts between actors with diverging interests, priorities and values which shape the interpretation of the concept of sustainability. What a potential sustainability transition looks like and which actors will benefit or not will be influenced by how such conflicts over the interpretation of sustainability play out.

The seminar will be in German and held in a hybrid format. More information can be found on the website of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research (ZIN) at the University of Münster: https://www.uni-muenster.de/Nachhaltigkeit/brotzeitkolloquium.html

06abrmaio 24, 2023

Workshop sobre áreas de pesquisa em bioeconomia no Uruguai

Within the SABio Project, a workshop was held in mid-March at the Centro Universitario Regional (CENUR) Noreste, at the Tacuarembó campus of the University of the Universidad de la República (UDELAR), to discuss and exchange information on research projects on bioeconomy, forestry and sustainability that are being carried out in Uruguay.

With the aim of strengthening the links between the SABio Project and research institutions in Uruguay, enriching and discussing the research projects being carried out by the SABio Project, as well as exploring future opportunities for collaboration, together with the Project’s scientific advisor, Lucía Pittaluga, a workshop was organized to bring together researchers from academia who are working on topics related to the bioeconomy.

The workshop brought together researchers from three research projects focused on regional development strategies based on bioeconomy, on transition paths towards the forest bioeconomy in Uruguay and on processes for integrating environmental policies into Uruguayan forestry policy. As a result, the content and progress to date of the different projects was presented, leading to a fruitful and profitable discussion.

In addition, since the workshop was held in a region where timber forestry is of great relevance, field visits were made in association with the aforementioned research projects. In this sense, we visited the surroundings of the third pulp mill in the country, commercial eucalyptus and pine plantations, as well as a silvopastoral project promoted by a producer from Tacuarembó.

Attached is the workshop program with the workshop objectives, details of the projects and attendees.

» Workshop program [.pdf]

23marmarço 23, 2023

Workshop “A bioeconomia na América do Sul: lições das experiências da Argentina, Brasil e Uruguai” em Buenos Aires

O workshop “A bioeconomia na América do Sul: lições a partir das experiências da Argentina, Brasil e Uruguai” aconteceu no dia 2 de março na sede da FLACSO Argentina. O workshop, organizado por Melisa Deciancio (Universidade de Münster) incluiu a apresentação de parte dos resultados da pesquisa do Projeto SABio e uma mesa redonda com especialistas em bioeconomia.

Pablo Mac Clay (Universidade de Bonn) apresentou o recentemente publicado Policy Brief, elaborado em conjunto com Melisa Deciancio, “Ideias para um desenvolvimento sustentável da Bioeconomia na Argentina”, com comentários de Roberto Bisang (CONICET). Guilherme de Queiroz Stein (Universidade de Münster) apresentou o trabalho “Sociobiodiversidade e bioeconomia: lições do Brasil”, com comentários de Juliana Peixoto (Rede LATN/FLACSO) e Daniel Kefeli (Universidade de Münster) apresentaram seu trabalho recentemente publicado “Integração das políticas ambientais na política florestal do Uruguai sob um conflito latente“, com comentários de Daniela Gomel (Fundación Vida Silvestre). O painel foi moderado por Karen Siegel (Universidade de Münster).

A mesa-redonda seguinte contou com a presença de importantes líderes da bioeconomia na Argentina, tanto do setor público quanto do meio acadêmico, e teve como objetivo explorar as principais oportunidades e desafios da bioeconomia no país e na região

14fevmaio 24, 2023

Workshop presencial para apresentação dos resultados

“La bioeconomía en América del Sur: lecciones desde las experiencias de Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay”

Jueves 2 de marzo, 10:00-12:00 hs.

Lugar: Aula 2 (PB), Sede Argentina Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales – FLACSO, Tucumán 1966, CABA

Evento abierto, con inscripción previa:

Organización: Melisa Deciancio (Universidad de Münster/FLACSO) y Karen Siegel (Universidad de Münster)

Contacto: Melisa Deciancio, mdeciancio@uni-muenster.de

La bioeconomía ha ido ganando cada vez más espacio en América Latina tanto como modelo productivo como estrategia de política pública. La amplia variedad y disponibilidad de recursos naturales con que cuenta la región, sumado a un desarrollo económico apoyado principalmente en la producción de materias primas y la disponibilidad de recursos humanos para la producción de conocimiento para la transformación de la biomasa, ha puesto de manifiesto el potencial para su desarrollo bioeconómico. Los países del Cono Sur vienen aplicando principios de la bioeconomía a diversos sectores como el agrícola y forestal con el objetivo de reducir la dependencia de los combustibles fósiles y lograr un suministro sostenible de bienes y servicios en las diversas cadenas de valor en las que participa. En esta empresa, el desarrollo biotecnológico y la valorización de recursos naturales que contemplen la amplia biodiversidad y variedad de biomas con los que cuenta la región, se vuelven preguntas centrales. Para ello se requieren políticas coordinadas, instituciones y marcos regulatorios que impulsen el desarrollo de la bioeconomía en los diversos sectores económicos de manera que sean sustentables económicamente, pero también en términos sociales y medioambientales. Los casos nacionales de Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay permiten abordar el desarrollo de la bioeconomía en la subregión, sus principales sectores y los desafíos en términos socio-ambientales como de diseño y elaboración de políticas. Estos casos nos permiten establecer también un punto de partida para abordar una cuestión menos explorada, como la posibilidad de coordinación regional para el impulso y regulación de la bioeconomía.

En este sentido, el taller se propone presentar casos específicos dentro de cada experiencia nacional de bioeconomía para luego indagar acerca de las posibilidades de coordinación regional, con las siguientes preguntas como disparadores:

¿En qué medida el abordaje regional presenta beneficios o dificultades para el desarrollo de la bioeconomía? ¿La bioeconomía puede replicar problemas de integración económica regional del pasado, o bien puede resultar un factor acelerador?
¿En qué medida la estructura productiva actual de los países del Cono Sur resulta propicia para el desarrollo de la bioeconomía y la posibilidad de insertarse regionalmente en cadenas de valor globales a través de ella? ¿Qué sectores se destacan (tanto por su capacidad productiva actual o por su potencialidad futura)?
¿Cuáles son los principales desafíos sociales y ambientales que deben ser abordados a nivel regional al contemplar el impulso de la bioeconomía?
¿Qué mecanismos de gobernanza (políticas de promoción, institucionales, regulatorios) son necesarios para el desarrollo de la bioeconomía a nivel regional? ¿Qué ámbitos institucionales regionales de coordinación resultan más propicios para este impulso? ¿Qué desarrollos institucionales son necesarios garantizar el aprovechamiento sostenible de los biomas compartidos a escala regional?

15dezdezembro 23, 2022

Participação na Conferência Anual FEWSUS 2022 “Sistemas Circulares de Bioeconomia para a Co-Prosperidade Urbana e Rural”

Melisa Deciancio e Pablo Mc Clay participaram da Conferência Anual FEWSUS 2022, “Sistemas Circulares de Bioeconomia para a Co-Prosperidade Urbana e Rural”, organizada em Buenos Aires, de 30 de novembro a 2 de dezembro de 2022. Melisa participou como palestrante principal com a apresentação “O Papel do Estado e das Políticas Públicas no Desenvolvimento da Bioeconomia na Argentina”, e Pablo apresentou sua pesquisa sobre “Transformações das Cadeias de Valor na Transição para uma Bioeconomia Sustentável” no Workshop “Smart-Society Governance of the Circular Bioeconomy”.

13dezjaneiro 23, 2023

SABio Webinar sobre “Redes de inovação e agregação de valor local em bioeconomias sul-americanas: parcerias público-privadas para uma inserção sustentável na economia global”

On November 23, 2022, SABio hosted a panel webinar, “Innovation networks and local value addition in South American bioeconomies: public-private alliances for a sustainable insertion into the global economy”, moderated and organized by SABio researcher, Dr. Melisa Deciancio (Uni Münster) with co-moderation from SABio researcher Pablo Mac Clay (Uni Bonn) and co-organized with support from SABio Research Group Leaders, Drs. Karen Siegel (Uni Münster) and Jorge Sellare (Uni Bonn).

Three panel experts from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay shared examples, perspectives and highlighted the current realities of the Bioeconomy innovation ecosystems in their respective countries. Forty-five attendees from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, the US, Germany, Ireland and Denmark tuned in to the event with simultaneous interpretation provided in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Victoria Santos, head of Decarbonization at the Insituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS), highlighted that while Brazil is home to established industries with specialization in use of biomass and waste streams in biorefinery applications (Sugar, Pulp and Paper, and Oranges), the country’s immense biodiversity and other biobased production chains have been overlooked and under researched for value-added opportunities. Existing waste streams may provide opportunities for fiber, plant-based protein or biochemical applications. A critical hurdle to Brazil’s bioeconomic innovation ecosystem is a lack of funding for entrepreneurs and start-ups trying to prototype and pilot products. Victoria coined these product development stages as the Brazilian bioeconomy’s “Valley of Death” which must be addressed.

Isabel Bortagaray from Uruguay’s Universidad de la República, shared the experiences, successes and challenges resulting from two bioeconomic initiatives. Although these initiatives attained high levels of private sector involvement and public institutional research support, a lack of communication space and time for stakeholders to engage, communicate problems and share knowledge emerged as barriers to innovation. Moreover, narrow and sectoral focused understandings of the bioeconomy emerged as a common obstacle to Uruguay’s bioeconomic development. Changing perspectives to that of Bioeconomies (plural), which embrace multi-dimensional and complex connections of bioeconomic activities and aspects of sustainability, is a necessary paradigm shift for achieving innovation.

Rafael Anta, from the division of Competitivity, Technology and Innovation at the Interamerican Development Bank shared perspectives on bioeconomic innovation and development opportunities throughout Latin America (LATAM) and insertion in the global context. Foremost, bioeconomic policy must contend with factors at multiple levels. Biomass and infrastructure are local, regulation is national, R&D tends to be international and biomass trade is global. In terms of education throughout LATAM, an increased emphasis on bioprospecting in the life sciences as well as increased funding for bioprospecting activities are desperately needed. Furthermore, public policies with strategies are ineffective without funding that supports entrepreneurship and providing the tools that entrepreneurs need, such as biorefinery infrastructure, biological materials and reagents. Following the panel presentations, a robust Q&A session ensued where the panelists and audience members highlighted cross-cutting issues facing bioeconomic development in the three focus countries and more broadly throughout LATAM. Firstly, public policies must reflect the complexity and broad scope of all that is entailed in the bioeconomy and the multi-dimensionality of sustainability. Bioeconomy policies do not belong to one ministry, but rather in an inter-ministerial policy framework that incorporates specificities from the local, national to regional levels. Secondly, funding is crucial, especially in the prototype and piloting stages of bio-based products. Without adequate funding and support for entrepreneurs at these stages, LATAM countries – including Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay – will miss out on their bioeconomic development potential.

The event was recorded and is available for viewing in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

24novjaneiro 24, 2023

SABio no Dia da Sustentabilidade da WWU “Campus Earth”

On October 20th, the University of Münster hosted the Sustainability Day “Campus Earth” for the first time. From now on this action day is planned to be an annual event at the University. The programme includes lectures, citizen dialogues, workshops and mobile laboratories to gain insights into the interdisciplinary research linked to a sustainability transformation. Within this framework, various WWU institutions, organisations and research groups presented themselves and their current projects to the public.

The SABio research group participated in this event by presenting their work during the day at the exhibition space and organizing an open discussion round on the topics of bioeconomy and sustainability. This World Café was organized together with the Brazil Centre, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research (ZIN) and the Institutes of Political Science and Landscape Ecology.

The event aimed to debate topics such as resource dependencies and the sustainability performance of bioeconomies in South America. More specifically, the World Café aimed to open a debate about problems and possible solutions of bio-based transformations in South America. The participants were invited to question their own roles and talk about international interconnections. To facilitate the exchange of the participants with various backgrounds, each participant had the opportunity to speak in their language of preference (German, English, Spanish or Portuguese). Still, in the end, everyone was able to communicate in English and only smaller translations had to be provided.

A total of 10-15 people not only of different languages but also of different age groups participated in the World Café. After a short introduction by Dr Karen Siegel (Head of the research group in political science at the University of Münster and ZIN member) and Prof. Tillmann Buttschardt (ZIN and Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster), the three early-career researchers of the SABio group in political science gave short inputs about their work.

The presentations opened three discussion rounds, focusing on current debates on bio-based transformations in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. The participants then discussed these questions at three different tables together with the researchers present and the results were captured on post-its. After the first round of discussion, the participants changed places so that new group constellations could be formed, which positively affected the discussions and the results achieved, as new perspectives and experiences could be shared. Finally, the post-its were attached to flipcharts after each discussion round, creating a “result gallery“. After the event, participants were able to look at all the important keywords from the three discussion rounds and continue the debate informally.

In the first round, the participants discussed the broad concept of bioeconomies and talked about the opportunities and potential to foster sustainability, based on Dr Melisa Deciancio`s presentation and the case of Argentina. More specifically, concerns about the increase in monocultures and the use of pesticides were shared during the exchange of thoughts. This led to a debate regarding the role of international regulations and certifications which may present possible solutions, but not without challenges. Matching this topic, the participants were able to discuss the role of certifications, such as the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification, or other possible measures for more sustainability in the forestry sector during the second round. As a basis for this, Daniel Kefeli illustrated the sustainability challenges of the pulp industry and the associated forestry sector in Uruguay. The attendees highlighted the lack of monitoring mechanisms and transparency of the certification process regarding different private and public actors. Moreover, they criticized the high costs of certifications which compromises the accessibility of the labels. Finally, the last roundtable discussion was guided by Guilherme de Queiroz-Stein and focused on the concept of socio-biodiversity and case studies from Brazil. In particular, the participants talked about possible ways to ensure the inclusion and protection of indigenous people. They came up with possible solutions like land rights and financial compensations for affected populations. Furthermore, the responsibilities of the consumer, the local state, and the international organisation were discussed in that context. To close the event, Anja Grecko Lorenz, managing director of the WWU Brazil Centre, provided an overview of cooperation possibilities.

21novnovembro 21, 2022

SABIO apoia o programa “Amazônia Bioeconomy Connections”

O SABIO foi um dos apoiadores do programa “Amazônia Bioeconomy Connections”, uma parceria para tecnologia, inovações e sustentabilidade na floresta amazônica, liderada pela Embaixada do Brasil em Berlim, Alemanha. Entre agosto e outubro de 2022, o pesquisador sênior do SABIO, Jan Börner, fez parte do comitê que selecionou quatro startups amazônicas, de um grupo inicial de 87 candidatos. As iniciativas selecionadas receberão apoio para identificar e estabelecer contato com potenciais parceiros alemães, com possibilidade de visitar a Alemanha.

Para mais informações, consulte: https://www.bioeconomy-connections.com/en