In Central Finland, small municipalities of the region met in May to discuss about the possibilities of bioeconomy. Like in many regions of rural Finland, municipalities are searching new sources to increase economic activity and thus wellbeing of the citizens. At the same time bioeconomy has long traditions in the region, but simultaneously the traditional bioeconomy jobs (primary production) are decreasing.

Climate change mitigation and adaptation is a global megatrend. Other big environmental issues like biodiversity loss and plastic waste problem has been widely recognized in media. Bioeconomy could provide also solutions to these megatrends while providing income for local people.

According to regional bioeconomy profile of Central Finland, nearly 30 % of the firms are in the field bioeconomy (https://berst.databank.nl/dashboard/Dashboard/Employment-and-firms-in-bioeconomy-sectors/). This alone reveals the significance of bioeconomy in Central Finland. However, bioeconomy firms are mainly micro-firms. We need to find motivation for these firms to grow.

In the seminar and workshop, local food production, local bioenergy and biogas production, together with wood construction were the key topics. These topics were seen prominent to jointly increase income and employment of the small municipalities in Central Finland. The results of the workshop are presented in the wordcloud. Wordcloud presents the state-of-art, as well as the future possibilities of the bioeconomy from small municipalities point of view in Central Finland.

All three above mentioned topics are also parts of the transnational joint action plan, made in RDI2CluB-project. Our next step within this topic on RDI2CluB, is to start to develop local food sector. We will conduct a small survey about the local food, with the focus on public procurement and its’ effects on regional economy.

More information: Suvi Bayr, RDI2CluB project manager in Regional Council of Central Finland, suvi.bayr@keskisuomi.fi