EAC TURNS TO BIOECONOMY TO EXPLOIT ABUNDANT NATURAL RESOURCES

The East African Community (EAC) has unveiled a strategy aimed to exploit its abundant natural resources for development.

The Regional Bioeconomy Strategy 2021/22 to 2031/32 will see the bloc turning to agricultural waste materials to generate energy.

It will offer an opportunity to produce value-added products in the energy,food, health and industrial sectors.

Among the key interventions proposed is conversion of waste materials for bioenergy generation.

EAC deputy secretary general Steven Mlote said during the launching last week that bioeconomy offered great opportunities for the seven-nation bloc.

"It will make use of the region's abundant natural resources to produce value-added products", he said at the EAC headquarters.

Through the initiative, the bloc can create jobs, create wealth, improve health and food security "and connect smallholder farmers to new, biobased value chains".

According to him, currently more than 65 percent of the population in Eastern Africa depended on biological resources for food, energy, medicine and other uses.

"They frequently use these biological resources in their raw form and dispose of significant portions as biological waste.

"There is therefore huge potential to add value to these biological resources through the development of a bioeconomy,” he pointed out.

The development of a modern bioeconomy in EA will help accelerate sustainable industrialization, green growth, the  creation of new biobased products and linking bio entrepreneurs to the markets.

On his part, the executive secretary of the East African Science and Technology Commission, Dr. Sylvance Okoth, said the strategy was  aligned to environmental sustainability programmes.

These, he explained, climate change adaptation and mitigation aimed at reversing unsustainable policies and practices.

Dr. Okoth further noted that the strategy will enhance the transformation of economies with a bio-based circular economy as the organising framework.

Bioeconomy is the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of the same into value added products.

However, it is more pronounced in agro-industries,scientific research and production of food, fibre and fuel through conversion of bio-resources.

The EAC bloc is one of the world's mega sites for huge natural capital (biological resources), especially with the entry of DR Congo into the bloc.

A study funded by the United States aid agency, USAid, last year indicated that the region (minus DR Congo) has  estimated natural capital valued at $ 11.3 billion.