Bioeconomy Innovations and Investments Forum

Background
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Bioeconomy strategies allow catalyzing the transition to more efficient and responsible agrifood value chains, while reducing pressures on the global environment (like climate change, and biodiversity loss) concurrently. Global interest in bioeconomy is accelerating but cooperation remains fragmented, prompting calls for more coherence and cooperation. Multilateral initiatives are advancing principles, metrics and other critical issues. The G20 Initiative on Bioeconomy, for example, agreed on ten high-level principles to guide the development of sustainable, inclusive, and innovation-driven bioeconomy pathways. The attention to bioeconomy has been growing; COP30 (Brazil) features bioeconomy. Likewise, the focus of the next Climate Technology Progress Report 2025 of UNEP is on bioeconomy.
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Cutting food loss and waste (FLW) and enhancing circularity are strategic entry points for bioeconomy. Innovative technologies are rapidly emerging, and several countries in Asia and the Pacific such as China, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and India have taken significant steps forward on this. At the regional level, these efforts are complemented by frameworks such as the Framework for Circular Economy for the ASEAN Economic Community and the ASEAN Action Plan on Sustainable Agriculture. Also, bioeconomy is a key element of Goal 2 of the Jaipur Declaration on 3R and Circular Economy (2025-2035), guiding Asia-Pacific’s transition to a circular economy. FAO has been strengthening efforts to advance bioeconomy for agrifood system transformation. It is a Programme Priority Area under the “Better Environment” pillar of FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022–2031.
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The Forum

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The Bioeconomy Innovations and Investments Forum is being organized to contribute to the above initiatives towards the transformation of agrifood systems through results-driven and programmatic approaches with more policy coherence and cooperation in the region. This hybrid Forum will provide a platform to exchange knowledge and experiences on bioeconomy innovations, including for reducing FLW, strengthen capacity among stakeholders, and connect innovators with investors to facilitate replication and scaling up of successful bioeconomy solutions for agrifood system transformation.

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