Opportunities and barriers identified during the co-creation of a sustainability index for small-scale fisheries

Abstract Fisheries management strategies are often designed for industrial contexts and struggle to address the specific challenges of small-scale fisheries (SSF). These fisheries require adaptive and participatory approaches that incorporate local ecological knowledge and address issues of equity, spatial competition, and ecosystem health. This study presents a participatory process involving fishers and technical assistants from two fishing guilds in Galicia (NW Spain) to co-develop a sustainability index for the sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) fishery. Rising market prices have increased harvesting pressure over this resource, raising concerns over its long-term sustainability. Together with fishers, we co-created an index composed of 19 indicators across environmental, economic, social, and governance dimensions. The resulting assessment reflected fishers' concerns and helped raise their awareness of sustainability challenges. Low index scores revealed critical issues related to equity, poaching, pollution, and effort concentration. The process also identified key barriers to sustainable management, including conflicts between on-foot gatherers and on-boat divers (which has a gender component), widespread poaching, and a lack of trust in management institutions. Beyond the index results, the process itself fostered dialogue and mutual understanding, emphasizing the importance of reciprocal trust and inclusive knowledge integration, and revealing the potential dual role of participatory fisheries indices. This study provides a transferable participatory model for identifying the barriers and enablers of adaptive management in SSF, offering lessons for similar contexts globally.