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The report finds that most pandemic recovery plans in Brazil, France, India, and Uganda missed the opportunity to invest in natural capital, often prioritizing business-as-usual practices. In Brazil, 87.3% of the reviewed budget for the Legal Amazon region had a negative impact, primarily due to agricultural subsidies. France's recovery plan showed a mixed impact, with 27% positive and 25% negative, largely due to corporate tax reductions. India's package was similarly mixed, with 18% positive and 24% negative, including significant funding for coal mining infrastructure. Uganda showed the most positive trend, with 34% of its 2020/21 budget having a positive impact, though this declined in the 2021/22 budget. The report recommends that governments implement environmental conditionality for corporate support, strengthen natural capital accounting, and align national strategies to ensure long-term economic stability through nature-positive investments.

The paper assesses how the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the sustainability movement shape the industrialisation trajectory of the SADC region. It argues that while 4IR technologies offer opportunities for leapfrogging legacy industries and formalising the informal sector, they also risk creating high-tech enclaves, global monopolies, and 'gig-economy sweatshops'. The authors propose a reimagined strategy that integrates 4IR and green economy goals to achieve broad economic wellbeing rather than focusing solely on job creation.

The document examines the role of bio-inputs and biological control agents in Colombia's transition toward a sustainable bioeconomy. It highlights Colombia's early leadership in regulatory frameworks, the growth of a science-intensive industry comprising 238 registered companies, and the preference for these tools among exporters of high-value crops. However, it identifies significant barriers, including lengthy and costly registration processes (up to 5 years and $15,000), a lack of farmer education regarding the preventive nature of bio-inputs, the risks of unregulated artisanal production, and a reliance on imported cosmopolitan microorganisms over native biodiversity.

The analysis finds that current bioeconomy transitions in Brazil, India, and Indonesia often promote unjust production systems that benefit agribusiness while marginalizing traditional communities and local populations.

The briefing examines the necessity of a just transition in Latin America, warning against the continued reliance on fossil fuel extraction. It highlights the risks associated with 'new' extractive industries for renewable energy minerals and advocates for economic diversification through bioeconomy strategies and investments in innovation and education.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is employing four pathways to accelerate climate innovation and investment in developing countries: fostering supportive regulatory environments, funding accelerators and incubators, de-risking first-mover investments, and strengthening domestic financial institutions. These efforts aim to address the gap in achieving Paris Agreement goals, with GCF managing a portfolio of USD 10 billion and assets totaling USD 37.2 billion across 127 developing countries.

The briefing analyzes Operation Warp Speed (OWS) to provide recommendations for strengthening the U.S. industrial base for medical countermeasures. It advocates for an 'ecosystem approach' that integrates platform technologies like mRNA, supports small innovative biotech companies, and maintains Advanced Development and Manufacturing (ADM) facilities. The authors propose establishing annual exercise programs to reduce development timelines and improving public-private partnerships to ensure the U.S. can design and approve vaccines within 100 days of detecting a pandemic threat.

The Amazônia Sustainable Supply Chains (AMSSC) Mechanism, proposed by Natura and Mauá Capital, aims to scale the bioeconomy in the Brazilian Amazon by addressing financing gaps for smallholder cooperatives. The instrument consists of a receivables fund that provides upfront payments based on off-take agreements and an Enabling Conditions Facility (ECF) for technical and community support. The pilot targets 3 million hectares of forest conservation by 2030, potentially avoiding 1.4 billion tons of CO2 emissions. It employs a blended finance structure with subordinated, senior, and potentially mezzanine tranches to de-risk investments and catalyze further corporate and philanthropic capital.

The report analyzes the impact of Brazilian public policies on Amazon forest protection, highlighting the success of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAM) and the use of real-time monitoring (DETER) in reducing deforestation between 2004 and 2012. It identifies a recent trend of increasing deforestation linked to weakened environmental governance and impunity. The author argues for a broader conservation agenda that includes monitoring forest degradation and secondary vegetation, as these are currently 'invisible' to official systems but critical for carbon sequestration and ecosystem restoration.

The briefing assesses the role of the 17 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories in addressing biological threats. It highlights the Labs' contributions to the 2001 anthrax attacks investigation and the COVID-19 pandemic via the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory (NVBL). The authors argue that the Labs are currently underleveraged due to a lack of clear authorities and a historical focus away from human biology. To move from a reactive to a proactive biosecurity posture, the document recommends that the DOE lead in engineering biology, establish a Biosecurity Reserve Corps for nongovernmental experts, re-establish the Chemical and Biological Nonproliferation Program (CBNP), and better integrate the Labs into the private-sector bioeconomy.

The document examines how the bioeconomy transition in Brazil has disproportionately benefited corporate agribusiness, thereby reinforcing social inequalities and hindering sustainable development.

The document details a participatory process to define a subnational bioeconomy for Valle del Cauca, Colombia, focusing on the agricultural, agro-industrial, and nature tourism sectors. It proposes a transition toward 'bioresource' and 'bioecology' visions that balance economic growth with environmental sustainability and social inclusion. The resulting roadmap emphasizes the need for a multi-actor governance scheme, targeted financial incentives for circularity, and critical infrastructure improvements in rural transport and basic services to enable the processing of biological resources.

The research examines cassava's role in Colombia's bioeconomy, identifying opportunities for value-added products like bioplastics and food. It concludes that realizing this potential requires increasing primary production productivity through sustainable, climate-smart practices and technical assistance for small farmers, without expanding the agricultural frontier.

The report analyzes the Zona Franca de Manaus (ZFM), noting that while it is named a 'free trade zone', it functions more like an 'enterprise zone' by focusing on regional development and local employment rather than international trade. The authors argue that current tax incentives have not significantly improved productivity or wages, with 59% of employees earning up to two minimum wages in 2019. The document recommends redefining the ZFM's identity and linking tax benefits to local hiring quotas, education, infrastructure reinvestment, and sustainable activities that leverage the Amazon biome's comparative advantages.

The document examines the cassava value network in Colombia, highlighting its current use in food and industrial sectors and its potential for bioplastics and animal feed. It identifies low productivity, limited technology transfer, and financial barriers for smallholders as key challenges. The paper suggests transitioning toward biorefineries and inclusive supply chains to enhance Colombia's bioeconomy.

WRI Brasil evaluates President Jair Bolsonaro's announcement to advance Brazil's climate neutrality goal to 2050. While acknowledging the gesture, the statement argues that the 2030 emission targets are less ambitious in absolute terms due to base-year adjustments and that the promises of zero illegal deforestation by 2030 contradict the administration's recent relaxation of law enforcement and removal of such targets from the 2020 NDC.

The project aims to establish two connectivity corridors in the Ecuadorian Amazon to combat habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss. It focuses on the Putumayo-Aguarico and Palora-Pastaza landscapes, targeting the creation of 50,000 hectares of new protected areas. The strategy involves promoting Sustainable Land Management (SLM) in agricultural areas, strengthening bioeconomy initiatives for indigenous and local communities, and creating multi-level governance platforms to integrate connectivity into territorial planning. The project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with a total cost of $6,423,853 and significant co-financing from the Ecuadorian government and international partners.

The report analyzes the value chain of Croton megalocarpus Hutch in Kenya, specifically focusing on the business model of the company EFK. It positions the use of this oil-producing plant within the broader context of the sub-Saharan African bioeconomy, which emphasizes adding value to bioresources and biowaste to support rural development and socio-economic needs, contrasting this with European bioeconomy goals that prioritize high-value molecules and greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Thailand is promoting a bioeconomy centered on cassava and sugarcane to drive economic growth and social equity, though the industrial sector is more advanced than community-based efforts. While integrated into policies like Thailand 4.0 and the 20-year National Strategic Plan, the transition faces regulatory hurdles, such as the Cane and Sugar Act (1968), and environmental pressures including land and water scarcity. Social challenges include wage inequality for plantation workers and food security risks for farmers shifting from rice to sugarcane.

The report analyzes economic stimulus measures in the Brazilian Legal Amazon during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that 87.2% of the R$ 54 billion in identified funds had a negative impact on natural capital, primarily due to subsidies for large-scale agribusiness. Only 9.7% of funds were directed toward positive impacts, such as family farming and low-carbon agriculture. The document concludes that the federal government missed an opportunity for a 'green recovery,' leading Amazonian state governors to launch the Green Recovery Plan (PRV) to prioritize deforestation control, sustainable production, green technology, and green infrastructure.