Webinar: The bioeconomy: a route to sustainable development
San José, Costa Rica
October 7, 2020
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Online
The bioeconomy is the production, use, conservation, and regeneration of biological resources, including 
knowledge, science, technology, and innovation related to these resources, to provide information, products, processes, and services to all economic sectors, with the purpose to move towards a sustainable economy. (Government of Costa Rica, 2020)
In accordance with the 2018 World Bioeconomy Summit, we consider the bioeconomy as the production, use, conservation, and regeneration of biological resources, including knowledge, science, technology, and innovation related to said resources, to provide information, products, processes, and services to all economic sectors, in order to advance towards a sustainable economy. (Government of Costa Rica, 2020)
Strategic objectives for Costa Rica:
- Convert Costa Rica into a model country in sustainable development, taking advantage of its biological resources to promote social inclusion and equity, balanced territorial development, conservation, knowledge and sustainable use of its biodiversity, and national competitiveness
- Make the bioeconomy one of the pillars of the productive transformation of Costa Rica, promoting innovation, value addition, diversification, and sophistication of its economy, applying the principles of circular bioeconomy, and seeking the fossil decarbonization of the processes of production and consumption.
- Promote convergence between the country's wealth in biological resources and the use of national capacities in the field of biological sciences for their valorization. (Government of Costa Rica, 2020)
The ILSI Mesoamerica Biotechnology committee has been working on the development of a series of seminars in support of the National Bioeconomy Strategy. This issue is relevant not only for the development of Costa Rica but also for the entire Mesoamerican region.
The first seminar of this series is called: The bioeconomy: a route for sustainable development and will take place on Wednesday, October 7, 2020, starting at 10 am Costa Rica time.
Guest speakers:
PhD. Federico Torres Carballo
Vice Minister of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology, and Communications (MICITT) of Costa Rica.
MBA. Hugo Chavarría Miranda
Bioeconomy and Productive Development Program Manager. Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
PhD. Adrián Rodríguez Vargas
Head of the Agricultural Development and Biodiversity Unit. Natural Resources Division. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
MSc. Giovanni Garro Monge
Researcher and professor at the School of Biology. Technological of Costa Rica (TEC)