Separating the two faces of “bioeconomy”: Plantation economy and sociobiodiverse economy in Brazil

This article analyzes the metadiscourse of bioeconomy and the ways in which bioeconomy is gaining new meanings in Brazil. We argue that the currently unfolding framing of Amazonian diverse economies in natural forests as part of a bioeconomy—on a par with, for example, soybean plantations—is a dangerous and misleading path. Recent reports framing the Amazon as a potential hotspot of bioeconomy are critically scrutinized. We find it important to disintegrate the all-embracing bio-concept that refers to anything “bio” and make visible and strengthen a radical and sustainable version of the bio-based economy against the extractive economy of the plantation. It is essential to analyze how land use practices impact diversity, both in the biological sphere and in social organization. We contrast and compare two types of land use based economies, the “plantation economy” and the “sociobiodiverse economy” offering a toolbox with which to analyze the nature of land use based economies when they expand over new territories and political economic systems. We explore how these two logics of land use compete for the same land and rule each other out, as rivals, using agroforestry and plantation studies as a basis. We find that the term bioeconomy has become so conflated that it cannot be rescued to serve the development of sociobiodiverse economies, such as agroecology or agroforestry. We conclude by making policy suggestions from a more global development perspective, situating the bioeconomy framing into the current moment of converging global crises.