A System of Indicators for Sustainability: An Example from the Senegalese Fisheries

Abstract In most coastal countries the fisheries sector satisfies multiple socioeconomic needs. This is especially the case in many coastal developing countries where fisheries represent a substantial source of food, jobs, and income. However, fisheries exert strong pressures on marine resources with threats to their sustainability. The context of overexploitation of marine resources is combined with a great diversity of stakeholders intervening in the governance of the fisheries. Thus, a better understanding of the challenges fisheries face is essential to enact management policies to ensure sustainability. Through a case study of the Senegalese fisheries, this article develops quantitative indicators of social, economic, and ecological states of the fisheries. Standardized principal components analysis combined with the Hodrick-Prescott filter is used to assess trends in the indicators. These indicators can contribute to an adaptive management framework in a context of multiple management objectives wit...