Bioeconomy – Opportunities and Dilemmas in the Context of Human Rights Protection and Environmental Resource Management

The notion of bioeconomy, appearing in publications, usually carries positive connotations, even to those less informed. It signifies a new approach towards economic development that is rather not perceived through the prism of unavoidable losses in the environment and reaching for further deposits of required raw materials. It turns out that – at least according to the assumptions and quite probably also in practice – it can be done differently, i.e. at the same level of efficiency, yet without negative effects on people and the environment. The idea of bioeconomy is one of the strategic conceptions of sustainable development, i.e. the method of implementing current economic objectives due to the new technological solutions with reduced use of natural resources and impact on the environment, having in mind future generations; this is an intention to adjust, to the maximum possible degree, developmental activities to absorption capacity of natural and man-made ecosystems.

The weakest point in these attempts, as it may seem, is the lack of knowledge concerning the long-term results of creating social perception for bioeconomy development, and consequently, dilemmas concerning possible sanitary-epidemiological and demographical changes evoked by (slightly different, but reaching as far as those in the present time) interference with the environment.