Reframing the EU Bioeconomy Strategy: Towards an Ecologically and Socially Sustainable Future
At the end of 2025, the European Union will present its revised Bioeconomy Strategy – a step with far-reaching implications for rural communities, businesses, climate action, and forests both in Europe and globally. While a public consultation on the topic is currently underway, denkhausbremen and its project partner Fern organized the high-level event “Building a Better Bioeconomy” at the European Parliament on June 12, 2025, as part of a project funded by the European Environment Initiative (EURENI). The event was hosted by Members of the European Parliament Maria Ohisalo (Greens/EFA) and Michal Wiezik (Renew), with support from BirdLife Europe, Oxfam, and the European Environmental Bureau.
The gathering brought together over 50 participants from rural areas, the business sector, forestry, and civil society from across Europe, alongside representatives from the European Commission and the European Parliament. The objective: to ensure that the new strategy paves the way for an ecologically and socially sustainable bioeconomy.
The discussions quickly made one thing clear: the amount of biomass available globally is limited – and already overexploited. This is evidenced by the transgression of several planetary boundaries, particularly in the area of biodiversity, and the current Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) of approximately 30%. Simply replacing fossil resources with biogenic ones is not a viable solution. Instead, there is a pressing need to drastically reduce overall resource consumption and to recognize and protect the vital ecosystem services that only healthy, intact nature can provide.
There was broad agreement – including from EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall, who was in attendance – that biomass should be treated as a valuable resource, used as efficiently and as long as possible, in accordance with the cascade principle and the principles of a circular economy.
Against this backdrop, many participants voiced strong criticism of short-lived uses of biomass – particularly the burning of primary wood for industrial energy production. Such practices were widely described as inefficient and wasteful, with calls for an end to EU subsidies supporting them.
Several forestry practitioners present at the event demonstrated that alternatives are not only possible but already in practice. They focus on material use of wood and close-to-nature forest management, thereby supporting both environmental sustainability and regional economic development.
Given that bioeconomy-related decisions have direct impacts on the people living in and caring for rural forest areas, it is essential to include their perspectives and make their voices heard in the policy-making process.
If smart regulation can significantly reduce resource use in key sectors such as wood combustion and animal feed, the bioeconomy could play a crucial role in bringing the use of natural resources back within planetary boundaries – limits that have already been severely exceeded. With its upcoming strategy update, the EU has a unique opportunity to take a step in that direction.
As part of the event, the organizers presented Commissioner Roswall with a joint position paper, summarizing key demands for the new Bioeconomy Strategy. The paper was endorsed by 60 civil society organizations from across Europe and beyond.
Speakers:
- Jessika Roswall, EU Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy (Keynote)
- Martin Jentzen, Forest Manager (Ekoskog, Sweden)
- Anu Korosuo, Joint Research Centre
- Anna Johansson, Founder of VistaHolm Byggnadshantverk
- Rickard Troeng, Digital Entrepreneur, Founder of Skogsportalen
- Pieter-Jan Desmet, CEO of Decospan
- Joachim Spangenberg, Friends of the Earth
