Creating community-based indicators to monitor sustainability of local fisheries

This paper presents a systematic process to create frameworks of indicators for monitoring sustainable development in fisheries at the local community level. Indicators are evaluated and selected through a three-stage process: first, potential indicators for general use in fisheries are identified; second, this set is refined for suitability within a specific local context; third, indicators are evaluated according to data-specific criteria. The results suggest that indicators suitable at larger geographic scales are often unsuitable, and insufficient, for use at a local scale. Conversely, many social, economic and institutional fishery indicators appear suitable for use locally, but their implementation has received insufficient attention to date.