Special Issue "Bioeconomy, Circular Economy and Sustainability"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jitka Fialova
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Landscape Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, 61300 Brno, Czech Republic
Interests: landscape management; bioeconomy; recreation and tourism; nonwood forest products; environmental protection

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The bioeconomy is made up of those parts of the economy that use renewable terrestrial and aquatic biological resources, such as forests, fish, and wildlife, to produce food, building materials, energy, medicine, and other essential items. It includes forestry and wood production, with the related biotechnological, chemical and energy industries, but also the provision of other ecosystem services that can support sustainable economic growth. In a bioeconomy, agriculture is not conceivable without sustainable land management. This is because land is a resource that can be used for growing produce as well as providing habitats for animals and living space for humans. Wood from local forests is an important resource for the bioeconomy. Greater forest diversity and new wood-based materials have the potential to make the timber industry more sustainable. Nonwood forest products are essential items in the bioeconomy. Certain bioeconomy strategies and scientific publications consider the bioeconomy to be inherently sustainable (Hetemäki et al., 2017Pfau et al., 2014). While certain authors consider the bioeconomy to be “circular by nature” (Carrez and Van Leeuwen, 2015Sheridan, 2016). Whereas,  Hetemäki et al. (2017) see the risk of following a linear business-as-usual approach if the principles of a circular economy  are not considered. The circular economy is defined by the European Commission (2015) as minimizing the generation of waste and maintaining the value of products, materials and resources for as long as possible. As a response to these critical discussions, the updated bioeconomy strategy of the European Commission (2018) announced that the “European Bioeconomy needs to have sustainability and circularity at its heart” (European Commission, 2018). Boosting the circular bioeconomy is one of the ways to help combat global warming and its consequences: climate change, biodiversity loss, increased forest fires, etc. Furthermore, it is important to generate less waste and recycle the waste we produce.

Scope and aims: Therefore, the purpose of the Special Issue will be to bring together scholars interested in the broadly understood bioeconomy, circular economy, agroforestry, climate change and sustainability. We encourage interdisciplinary perspectives on an organisation and its milieu, combining an individual and organisational approach, bearing in mind that only comprehensive and multilevel strategies can result in benefits. The list of topics below is by no means exhaustive; they are merely suggestions for scientific investigation. This Special Issue welcomes contributions presenting both conceptual frameworks, systematic literature reviews and empirical results in the following areas:

  • Progress towards a sustainable bioeconomy;
  • Good practices to operate the bioeconomy within safe ecological limits;
  • Benefits of biodiversity in primary production;
  • Circular economy;
  • Agroforestry and its benefits;
  • Climate change;
  • Nonwood forest products;
  • Constructing relations with the business environment (including customers);
  • Education of stakeholders;
  • Eco-innovations;
  • Ecological trends in consumer behaviours.

Dr. Jitka Fialova
Prof. Dr. Martina Zeleňáková
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability
  • forest-based bioeconomy
  • environmental management
  • eco-innovation
  • integrated value chain
  • agroforestry
  • nonwood forest products

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Efficiency of Natural Clay Mineral Adsorbent Filtration Systems in Wastewater Treatment for Potential Irrigation Purposes
Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5738; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105738 - 20 May 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 519
Abstract
This project investigated the relative efficiencies of three pilot-scale constructed columns for enhancing drainage wastewater treatment processes to ensure compliance with Egyptian and international water quality criteria. In this investigation, basic materials (sand and gravel) and variable natural clay minerals zeolite (Z), diatomite [...] Read more.
This project investigated the relative efficiencies of three pilot-scale constructed columns for enhancing drainage wastewater treatment processes to ensure compliance with Egyptian and international water quality criteria. In this investigation, basic materials (sand and gravel) and variable natural clay minerals zeolite (Z), diatomite (D) and bentonite (B) were utilized as packing materials to build up a Z column (ZC), D column (DC) and B column (BC), respectively. The three columns’ ability to remove pollutants from waste water for re-use in irrigation was investigated throughout one year (12 trials). The results revealed that the influent water had 211 mg/L total suspended solids, 6.09 mg/L total nitrogen, 36.67 mg/L biochemical oxygen demand, 56 mg/L chemical oxygen demand, 1700 mg/L total dissolved solids, 0.97 mg/L copper (Cu2+), 1.12 mg/L iron (Fe2+), 1.07 mg/L manganese (Mn2+), 1.02 mg/L lead (Pb2+), 1.05 mg/L zinc (Zn2+), and 46 × 103 CFU/mL fecal coliforms. These parameters were higher than the values permitted by Egyptian and international licenses. The range of removal efficiency of these pollutants by ZC was 96–21%, by BC was 99–29.8%, and by DC was 99–19.80%. Regeneration studies for the spent adsorbents demonstrated that the percentages of pollutant removal were sufficiently high. The treated effluent produced by the three columns was suitable for irrigation purposes, especially at a contact time of four hours, with the order for column treatment efficiency being BC ˃ DC ˃ ZC. Treated water was classified for irrigation suitability according to the Agrifood Water Quality Index (AFWQI) as marginal from the ZC, very good from the DC, and excellent from the BC. Treatment of such drainage water using the BC and DC appears feasible, because the process is easily operated and leads to final treated effluent of high quality for agricultural uses. The economic cost also confirms the feasibility of this treatment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioeconomy, Circular Economy and Sustainability)
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Article
Forest Park Visitors Opinions and Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Development of the Germia Forest and Recreational Park
Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3160; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063160 - 13 Mar 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 590
Abstract
The study addresses sustainable development in the forest and recreational park of Germia in the Capital City of Kosovo. The park serves the residents and other visitors’ socioeconomic and environmental needs, such as leisure, sports, meditation, and biodiversity and ecological roles. Sustainable management [...] Read more.
The study addresses sustainable development in the forest and recreational park of Germia in the Capital City of Kosovo. The park serves the residents and other visitors’ socioeconomic and environmental needs, such as leisure, sports, meditation, and biodiversity and ecological roles. Sustainable management and the development of natural resources are a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their own needs. The study used the contingent valuation method to assess willingness to pay for the sustainable management and development of Germia forest and recreational park, given the values it serves the people. The study surveyed 208 respondents about their opinions on the willingness to pay for the sustainable management and development of the forest and recreational park. The results showed that 56% were willing to pay for recreational services, while 44% were against it because they were not satisfied with the park’s services. The majority (62%) were also willing to pay for this service in tax from their salaries. This showed that an average percentage of people were willing to pay for the sustainable management and development of the forest and recreational park. Therefore, this study serves as a basis for future similar studies and policy decisions for park development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioeconomy, Circular Economy and Sustainability)
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Article
National Limits of Sustainability: The Czech Republic’s CO2 Emissions in the Perspective of Planetary Boundaries
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2164; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042164 - 18 Feb 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 534
Abstract
Building on the planetary boundaries (PB) concept and recent studies on assessing the PB at the national level, this paper proposes a new method for addressing the growing need to conceptualize the national environmental limits in the global perspective. The global and national [...] Read more.
Building on the planetary boundaries (PB) concept and recent studies on assessing the PB at the national level, this paper proposes a new method for addressing the growing need to conceptualize the national environmental limits in the global perspective. The global and national limits for the climate change PB are set using the GDP-adjusted model that represents an innovative and fairer CO2 emissions distribution mechanism. It elaborates on the equity principle and distributes the remaining global emission budget to countries on the basis of their past, current, and future population; past emissions; and current state of economic development. The results point to insufficient global efforts to reduce the CO2 emissions to avoid a global temperature rise of more than 2 °C by 2100. When examining the data in accordance with this climate change scenario, we see that some countries have already spent their CO2 budget and most high-income countries will spend their remaining budget by the end of the decade. This is also the case for the Czech Republic, which exceeded the limit for the period from 2017 onwards in 2018. While the result clearly points to the urgency of the decarbonization process, it also shows that some high-income countries, including the Czech Republic, are currently emitting at the expense of other countries. On the policy level, the findings could contribute to the re-evaluation of the GHG reduction plans as well as setting more appropriate and fairer national targets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioeconomy, Circular Economy and Sustainability)
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