The Political Economy of Fostering a Wood-based Bioeconomy in Germany

To increase the sustainability of economic processes and products as well as the use of sustainable resource inputs, a transition is required from the hitherto predominantly fossil resource-based "throughput economy" towards a circular flow economy based on renewable resources, the so-called bioeconomy. This paper considers the transition challenge from the perspective of dynamic theories on lock-in effects and lock-out options. Within this framework, a successful transition requires a twofold equilibrium: the economic sustainability equilibrium and a corresponding political equilibrium providing the corresponding transition policies. Based on the positive analysis of both current bioeconomy policies and policy demand by bioeconomy actors in Germany, this paper develops recommendations on how a political equilibrium may be achieved which favors a sustainabilityoriented transformation to a bioeconomy. One means of doing so, for example, is to combine a gradual development of existing policies with efforts to identify and support innovative niche products and processes.