{"id":21246,"date":"2024-10-01T15:30:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T18:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fund.ar\/publicacion\/misiones-possible-economic-development-and-nature-conservation\/"},"modified":"2024-10-16T12:02:13","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T15:02:13","slug":"misiones-possible-economic-development-and-nature-conservation","status":"publish","type":"publicacion","link":"https:\/\/fund.ar\/en\/publicacion\/misiones-possible-economic-development-and-nature-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Misiones possible: economic development and nature conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Bioeconomy is presented as a new techno-productive paradigm with great potential to harmonise development and environmental sustainability in Argentina. The province of Misiones could be an example of this approach. The productive particularities and abundant biological resources of the region give it a competitive advantage for the development of agricultural bio-inputs, the installation of forestry biorefineries and the implementation of payment for ecosystem services schemes. These transformative activities could dynamise the provincial productive structure and promote the protection of local ecosystems.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Bioeconomy as a sustainable development strategy<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The environmental crisis imposes new challenges on us when thinking about an economic development strategy for Argentina. The identification and selection of activities that could lead this process should no longer be based exclusively on their capacity to generate foreign exchange, foster innovation, generate employment and productive linkages. It is equally important to consider the potential of these activities to contribute to mitigating and adapting to the environmental crisis.<\/p>

In this context, the concept of the economy has gained prominence on the international agenda in recent years. The economy is associated with the use and transformation of resources of biological origin (not only biomass such as crops or wood but also genetic resources and organisms, for example) from nature for the production of goods and services, based on the intensive application of scientific and technological knowledge. How can the economy contribute to the design of a sustainable development strategy?<\/p>

Firstly, the<\/strong><\/b> economy has the potential to modernise and improve the productivity of traditional activities through the incorporation of advanced technologies<\/b>, such as green chemistry, modern biotechnology and nanotechnology. Moreover, these technologies, which are at the core of the economy, are often seen as key players in the next technological paradigm, opening a window of opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of adopting a new development in its early stages. To get a dimension of the potential of this strategy, it is estimated that up to 60% of the materials currently used in the global economy can be replaced by bio-based products (Chui et al., 2020<\/a>).<\/p>

Second, the bioeconomy could represent a way out of the false environment-development dichotomy. It is often argued that economic growth may compromise the future habitability of the planet. On the other hand, it is argued that developing countries cannot afford to forego improvements in present well-being in the face of high levels of poverty and material deprivation. A bio-economy-based development strategy can promote a low-carbon and circular economy, based on the use of biological resources and the reuse and recycling of materials, including waste from primary and manufacturing activities<\/b>. In certain contexts, the bioeconomy also generates value through the conservation of ecosystems, which in turn provide ecosystem services (those benefits that an ecosystem generates for society and the economy). In turn, this approach is compatible with other emerging global valuation practices, such as the development of carbon credit schemes, green bonds, payments for ecosystem services and ecotourism strategies.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Argentina's Amazon\u2019 as an example of bio-economic development<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The province of Misiones has characteristics that provide a glimpse of an opportunity to combine nature conservation and economic growth through the economy. Its biodiversity and wealth of natural resources can provide biological solutions to some of the problems of its production chains.<\/p>

Its natural wealth lies in its extensive forest cover, the groundwater of the Guaran\u00ed Aquifer System and the great biological diversity of the province. The importance of the Misiones forests within the Atlantic Forest is so remarkable that it can be easily identified in satellite images by its dense forest cover, surrounded by a vast area of land used for agriculture and livestock.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Considered the “Amazon of Argentina”, the province of Misiones concentrates 2.6% of the country’s native forests and 52% of Argentina’s biodiversity<\/b> with more than a hundred species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, plants and fungi. The Parana rainforest is part of the so-called Green Corridor, one of the few ecological corridors in Argentina, which crosses 22 municipalities with diverse landscapes including protected areas, agricultural colonies and native villages.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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This natural wealth coexists with significant environmental challenges due to the impact of deforestation, intensive agriculture, and forest fires, among others. Globally, Argentina is among the ten countries<\/a> with the greatest increase in primary forest loss between 2020 and 2022 (Global Forest Review, 2022). Specifically, Misiones ranks tenth among the 23 Argentine provinces with the greatest loss of native forests between 2007 and 2022, accounting for 1.5% of the total deforested area at the national level (the highest figures are accounted for by Santiago del Estero with 28%, Salta 21%, and Chaco 13%). It is worth noting that Misiones registers one of the steepest deforestation decline rates in the country (Centro de Informaci\u00f3n Ambiental, 2022). In addition, much of the province’s agricultural production uses conventional agrochemical-intensive production techniques, which represents a problem for health, local ecosystems and biodiversity.<\/p>

All this nature-based wealth coexists with poor economic performance. Taking GDP per capita as an indicator of development, in 2021 the province recorded one of the lowest levels of GDP per capita compared to the national level, only ahead of Formosa.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Furthermore, the characteristics of Misiones’ export basket reveal a strong concentration of the productive structure in a few sectors, many of them associated with agricultural activities with little added value. For example, around 40% of provincial exports came from the tea and yerba mate complex and 30% from the forestry complex, mainly due to the export of cellulose<\/span>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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