The bioeconomy is emerging as a major driver of sustainable growth. Across Latin America, countries are harnessing their rich biodiversity to create economic opportunities from nature-based products and services. UK PACT provides technical expertise to help turn this potential into reality, supporting everything from policies and partnerships to business development and market access, while ensuring local communities benefit and precious ecosystems are protected.
The bioeconomy is embedded in our everyday lives. From the food we eat and the materials in our clothes to clean energy produced from agricultural and food waste, many everyday products begin with biological resources.
Although there is no internationally agreed definition, the bioeconomy is broadly understood as the use of renewable natural materials derived from land and sea to create products and services. Spanning sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, biotechnology and manufacturing, it produces everything from paper, cereals and clothing fibres to medicines, cosmetics and biofuels. When developed sustainably, it can also reduce reliance on fossil fuels and help cut emissions.
And it’s already establishing itself as a significant economic force. In the UK alone, the bioeconomy generates around £325 billion and employs around 6.4 million people, according to new research by the London School of Economics (LSE). This creates an important opportunity for biodiversity-rich countries, but only if managed responsibly. A sustainable bioeconomy is not simply about using more biological resources; it is about keeping resources in use for longer and protecting the ecosystems they depend on.
Healthy ecosystems underpin resilient economies, global supply chains and livelihoods. Threats to critical ecosystems in other parts of the world could have serious consequences for the UK.
In January 2026, the UK Government published a national security assessment, Global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security, which warned that ecosystem degradation and collapse overseas could risk UK food security. Damage to these ecosystems could lead to reduced crop yields, disrupt global food supplies and intensify competition for resources. These leaves countries like the UK, which imports 40 per cent of its food, more exposed to climate change impact.
The LSE research shows that the UK’s bioeconomy depends on “resilient relationships with nature-rich partner countries.” By exchanging knowledge and innovation with countries pursuing their own bioeconomy pathways, programmes such as UK PACT are helping put this principle into practice.
Latin America is home to six of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. These 17 countries contain around 70 per cent of the world’s biodiversity, highlighting Latin America’s extraordinary natural wealth and its potential for a thriving bioeconomy.
Yet these natural assets are under growing pressure. The Amazon, which stores vast amounts of carbon, influences climate and rainfall patterns and supports biodiversity, could reach a tipping point by 2050 into a drier, savannah-like state. This would have serious implications for the rest of the world, as its health is critical to global carbon and water cycles.
The region is also home to more than 47 million people, including 2.2 million Indigenous peoples, and about 13 per cent of the world's known species of flora and fauna. Therefore, protecting this ecosystem has significant consequences for both people and the planet. The Science Panel for the Amazon argues that Indigenous Peoples and local communities should be at the centre of the Amazon bioeconomy, both because of their knowledge and role in stewarding ecosystems and to ensure they receive a fairer share of the economic benefits generated.
What is UK PACT’s role?We work with governments, technical experts and specialist partners across the region to help turn bioeconomy development into practice across Brazil, Colombia and our Amazon Regional Fund. What unites this portfolio across Latin America is a set of four interconnected approaches. They complement each other, guide our work and enable UK PACT to spark lasting change. |
The development of the bioeconomy requires a clear plan with agreed, equitable rules that enable businesses to grow. This takes the form of national and subnational strategies, plans, regulations, taxonomies and governance arrangements. Only then can a mandate for bioeconomy development be recognised.
In Brazil, a project run by implementing partner Conselho Empresarial Brasileiro para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável (CEBDS), helped put the foundations in place for Brazil’s national bioeconomy, supporting the creation of the National Bioeconomy Commission (CNBio) and the development of the National Bioeconomy Development Plan (PNDBio). Developed through consultation with government, academia, civil society, Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities, the plan provides a national framework to guide the growth of sustainable bioeconomy value chains and forest-based economic development.
This project helped position the bioeconomy as a central pillar of Brazil's sustainable development strategy by bringing together a diverse range of actors through consultations, workshops and dialogue.
UK PACT has also been supporting Peru develop its National Bioeconomy Strategy. Working with government, the support will identify priority sectors and opportunities for sustainable growth and build the skills and coordination needed to deliver them. The resulting roadmap will help create a shared vision for a bioeconomy that generates economic opportunities, while positioning Peru as a regional hub for sustainable development embedded with principles of inclusivity and diversity.
It is vital to involve to a wide range of stakeholders – from shaping plans and agreeing on priorities to how projects should be delivered. That means finding consensus among government, civil society, Indigenous communities and the private sector, around a shared agenda.
The Inova Sociobio II project is helping Pará, in Brazil, turn its rich biodiversity into new business and livelihood opportunities for local communities. It has attracted additional funding to support businesses led by Quilombola and traditional-community enterprises, while strengthening Pará’s Amazon Bioeconomy and Innovation Park. The project also helps bridge academic research and traditional knowledge, creating new opportunities for innovation and enterprise development.
As Jose Ivanildo of the National Council of Extractive Populations notes, “Innova Sociobio enabled this merging of knowledge, allowing us to create innovations by combining academic knowledge, organised by universities and technical advisors, with the ancestral knowledge developed through community science.” By bringing in new funding and partners, the project is helping more community-led businesses access the investment and support they need to grow, creating economic opportunities that depend on protecting and sustainably using the Amazon’s natural resources.
In Colombia, the Fruits of the Forest project took a ‘Living Labs’ approach to test and develop ideas. Producers, businesses, researchers and government actors worked together on common challenges and developed solutions for forest-fruit value chains. This helped strengthen local ownership of the bioeconomy agenda and ensured that opportunities were driven by territorial priorities and community needs.
Support such as business development, technical advice, research, product testing and market insights helps producers and businesses improve their products, meet quality standards and become ready to sell in commercial markets. UK PACT supports two projects in the Colombian Amazon.
First, building on this work, the Fruits of the Forest project is also helping communities there turn the region’s biodiversity into sustainable businesses and livelihoods. Focusing on Amazonian fruits such as açaí, aguaje, camu camu, natural ingredients and other forest products, it helps local producers improve their businesses, develop new products, process and sell their goods, and access new market opportunities.
As one açaí producer from Asoparaíso explained, “The experience has been extremely positive. We have been able to access the knowledge the Universidad Nacional de Colombia developed, which is essential for creating new products... the prototypes have helped us open up new business opportunities.” The project has also helped put Amazonian fruits on the national economic agenda, strengthened collaboration in Caquetá and attracted additional funding to help these emerging sectors grow.
Second, the REAL project in the Colombian Amazon Piedmont supports sustainable cocoa production and livelihoods based on local biodiversity. It has helped create stronger markets for sustainably produced cocoa, including higher-value premium cocoa, while supporting biodiversity through stingless beekeeping and the development of rules to support the sector. Together, these efforts are helping create new economic opportunities that value and protect forests.
The strongest indicator of success is when governments, funders and financial institutions commit their own resources to continue the work started by UK PACT. It is a sign that the technical support has created lasting impact and is a catalyst for sustainable economic growth.
In Colombia, the MAPBIO project demonstrated a government-backed model for helping promising bioeconomy businesses grow. To date 34 bioproducts have been accelerated through the project, supporting 15 companies. Products include biofertilisers and soil enhancers, and high-value natural ingredients for health and cosmetics like naidí fruit and dividivi.
The programme helped businesses create more value from Colombia’s biodiversity by developing new products and making fuller use of biological resources. Reflecting this approach, Dr Mabel Torres of Selvacéutica noted that its “circular approach across value chains like Naidí, Haciote, Cacay, and vanilla means we discard nothing; every bit of biomass is repurposed into new high-value products.”
MAPBIO’s success helped secure further public investment for replicating it in Antioquia. This shows the potential for a successful national model to be adapted by regional governments and reach more businesses and communities.
In Brazil, UK PACT helped turn the BioHubs concept - a regional group of organisations working together on the bioeconomy - into an approach that could attract major investment and be rolled out across the Amazon. By developing a clear model for how and where BioHubs could operate, and how communities, researchers, businesses and investors could work together, the project helped unlock around €20 million from the German development bank KfW to establish six BioHubs.
According to Victor Ferraz of the Arapyaú Institute, the project helped create “a substantial legacy by demonstrating the feasibility of collaboratively developing a national bioeconomy policy that reflects the country’s diversity and results in tangible actions in the territories." This enabled an initial concept to grow into a much larger initiative supporting businesses and economic opportunities, based on the sustainable use of Amazon biodiversity.
The bioeconomy represents a significant opportunity for both the UK and its international partners. For the UK, strengthening its own bioeconomy can support economic growth, while stronger bioeconomies in nature-rich countries can help protect the ecosystems, supply chains and resources on which economies and people around the world depend.