A sustainability conceptual classification system to support socio-economic indicator design and evaluation in fisheries and aquaculture

Social and economic sustainability indicators are widely used to inform fisheries and aquaculture management, yet there is no common framework for developing, selecting, evaluating, or comparing them. A shared framework would bring coherence to this landscape by supporting the systematic identification of gaps and opportunities to strengthen understanding of social and economic dimensions across both sectors. In response to this need, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the ICES Working Group on Social Indicators undertook a scoping literature review to better understand how social and economic indicators have been used in fisheries and aquaculture management. This article describes the development and iterative refinement of a conceptual classification system, grounded in established sustainability frameworks and refined through pilot testing, that FAO developed to guide the selection and use of social and economic sustainability indicators in these two sectors. The system organizes the diverse concepts represented by indicators in the fisheries and aquaculture literature into a coherent set of categories and sub-categories. It offers a practical tool for evaluating and comparing the conceptual comprehensiveness of existing data collection efforts and for supporting the robust design of indicators in new initiatives.