Presentation of the CambioNet
project

The CambioNet project aims to promote the bioeconomy in the Caribbean/Amazon region.

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projet Cambionet

WHAT IS THE CAMBIONET PROJECT?

The INTERREG CambioNet project is a €6 million project co-financed by the Interreg V Caribbean Program under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Development Fund (EDF) and the United Nations Development Program. development (UNDP). The main objective of the project is to accelerate the bioeconomic modernization of agriculture in the Caribbean/Amazon by providing small farms with concrete and innovative solutions to meet three main challenges, namely: food sovereignty, ecological transition and climate change as well as the preservation of biodiversity.

FOR A REGENERATIVE AND SYMBIOTIC BIOECONOMY IN THE CARIBBEAN AND AMAZONIAN TERRITORIES

This project aims to promote the bioeconomy in the Caribbean/Amazon region by using small-scale agriculture as a strategic lever to address the environmental, economic, and social challenges of the region.

1. Context and challenges

International framework in favor of deploying the bioeconomy on a global scale. The European Union and other countries have adopted bioeconomy strategies to address global challenges such as food insecurity, biodiversity protection, energy transition, and climate change. The Caribbean/Amazon region faces significant challenges, including food dependence, degradation of natural resources, vulnerability to climate change, unemployment, and insecurity.

2. Symbiotic and Regenerative Bioeconomy

The bioeconomy relies on the sustainable use of living resources to create products, materials, and energy. It integrates principles of sustainability, industrial innovation, and closed-loop cycles to maintain a balance between productivity and resilience.

3. Role of Agriculture

Agriculture, especially small-scale farming, which represents a large portion of the farms in the region, is underutilized, despite its potential to play a key role by adopting agroecological approaches and integrating into circular economy schemes.

The initiative led by the NGO CambioNet aims to achieve three major objectives:

  • Define a strategic vision for the agroecological, food, climatic and bioeconomic transition.
  • Promote networked innovation to improve the economic and environmental performance of small farms.
  • Co-build public policies to support this transition in the long term.

CambioNet is committed to anticipating and creating favorable conditions for the well-being of populations in the region by deploying the principles of the bioeconomy in collaboration with regional government actors and civil society.

The NGO CambioNet plans to establish regional governance involving civil society, academic spheres, and decision-makers to support the strategic decision and its implementation.

CambioNet plans to mobilize countries in the Caribbean/Amazon region and establish networks, laboratories, regional university curricula on the bioeconomy, innovation platforms, incubators, and territorial action plans to support the bioeconomy.

The NGO’s priority actions include promoting the results of the CambioNet project, carrying out a phase II called CambioNet+ (2024-2027), consolidating regional governance, strengthening the NGO team, and the search for financing.

By 2027, the NGO plans to take into account new themes linked to the bioeconomy (forest, fishing environments, energy, transport, tourism), and to potentially open up to other basins and communities (Indian Oceans and Pacific) sharing similar issues.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS OF THE PROJECT

CambioNet’s activities will be deployed in three large geographical areas including the Amazon Basin (Guyana, Surinam, Trinidad & Tobago), the Lesser Antilles (OECS member countries including Guadeloupe and Martinique), the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti).

A NEW AMBITION FOR THE CARIBBEAN/AMAZONIA

The European Union and many other countries have adopted a bioeconomy strategy to respond, in a priority and planetary manner, to the challenges of reducing food insecurity, protecting and promoting biodiversity, phasing out fossil fuels, stabilizing global warming, leading agroecological and energy transitions and building the agriculture of the future.

The alarming figures relating to food dependence (70 to 80%) in Caribbean/Amazon countries, the degradation of the rural fabric and natural resources (soil, erosion of biodiversity, etc.), unemployment and insecurity, aggravated by the health crisis and current geopolitical instability, call for the search for new development models. The vulnerability of our regions in the face of global change, and, in particular, climate change, requires the construction of a shared strategic vision, which we must strive to manage together to obtain results on significant scales to impact sustainably, and build resilience.

Agriculture can, in this context, constitute a real strategic lever, as long as we can approach it from a different angle from the main orientations which have prevailed until now, favorable to the dominant model of agro-export based on the practices of intensive conventional agriculture. Small-scale agriculture, which is the most represented (70 to 90% of farms in the Caribbean/Amazon), but, paradoxically, the most marginalized of the aid and support circuits, can, in its multifunctional dimension in symbiosis with other sectors (fishing, forestry, energy, transport, tourism, etc.), play a determining role, subject to specific consideration in agricultural and R&D policies, relying on the new mechanisms supported by the bioeconomic transition.

These include the use of cutting-edge traditional and innovative scientific technologies for small-scale production (agroecology, agroforestry, permaculture, ponics, small mechanization, etc.) and agro-processing for food valorization, or not, ( green chemistry, bio-process, etc.), integrated into circular economy and distribution schemes designed on the scale of connected, intelligent and attractive territories (typicality, agritourism, catering, energy, crafts, etc.).

THE 5 OBJECTIVES OF THE EUROPEAN BIOECONOMY STRATEGY

(Objective 5 revised and adapted to the Caribbean/Amazonian reality)

Ensuring food and nutritional sovereignty

Managing natural resources sustainably

Reduce dependence on non-renewable and unsustainable resources

Mitigation and adaptation to climate change mitigation

Strengthening regional cooperation and job creation

TOWARDS A SYMBIOTIC AND REGENERATIVE BIOECONOMY

What is the bioeconomy: Bioeconomy is a concept that encompasses all activities aimed at the sustainable use of resources derived from photosynthesis, such as plants, trees, and marine organisms, to create products, materials, and energy, while considering economic, social, and environmental aspects.

  • Role of bioeconomy in territorial growth: Bioeconomy can be a powerful lever for territorial growth by creating value from the field to the consumers. It adopts a holistic approach by integrating biomass into food production, materials, and energy, leading to a responsible and sustainable ecosystem.
  • Industrial innovation and the bioeconomy: The bioeconomy requires significant industrial innovation. This includes the development of new bio-based materials for various industries, new bio-energy sources, and new bio-based products for biopharmaceuticals.
  • Impacts on agriculture and food: The bioeconomy has major implications for agriculture and food, for example, by promoting the development of plant proteins for human or animal food. This can reduce the consumption of nitrogen fertilizers and promote a healthy diet.
  • Ecosystem approach and bioresources: The bioeconomy is based on an ecosystem approach using solutions inspired by nature to create products and materials. The properties of living organisms are exploited to find sustainable and effective solutions.
  • Territorial approach to the bioeconomy: The territorial approach considers space as more than a simple economic support, taking into account geographic, social and cultural specificities. It seeks to optimize the use of local resources while relying on principles of sustainability and environmental responsibility.
  • Conditions for the development of bioeconomic activities: The development of bioeconomic activities depends on technical, regulatory, horizontal, vertical, and systemic conditions. The interaction between these conditions influences the viability and success of a new activity.
  • Closing cycles and homeostasis: The bioeconomy aims to close the cycles of matter and energy, by imitating the principles of regulation and homeostasis observed in nature. It strives to ensure a balance between economic productivity and environmental resilience.

In summary, the bioeconomy relies on the sustainable use of living resources to create products, materials, and energy. It integrates economic, social, and environmental aspects, seeking to find a balance between productivity and sustainability. Dans notre approche de la bioéconomie, nous intégrerons :

  1. The principles provided by the symbiotic economy, based on the symbiosis between human intelligence, the power of natural ecosystems and the technosphere (the tools) to produce without exhausting resources, but by regenerating them.
  2. As well as those relating to the territorial dimension to establish this dynamic by taking into account local specificities and seeking to optimize interactions between the actors and resources of a given region.
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