Introduction
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are seventeen interlinked objectives designed to serve as a guide for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future (UN, 2015). Sustainability Indicators are variables defined to reflect the main features of sustainability in a simplified way (Valenti et al., 2018).
This work aims to achieve legal integration between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and available aquaculture sustainability indicators based on the legal principles of the Brazilian Constitution .
Materials and methods
An analysis of the Brazilian Federal Constitution was carried out from the perspective of constitutional principles related to environmental law to establish the correlation between these principles, the SDGs, and sustainability indicators of aquaculture .
It was defined 63 desirable states for sustainable aquaculture (DS) divided into 4 dimensions of sustainability. The SDGs were then associated with each of the desirable state characteristics. A hundred and eight six sustainability indicators were selected from the scientific literature and technical documents. They were associated with DS and SDGs .
The indicators must consider one or more of the SDGs to harmonize with the idea of sustainability in its most diverse aspects. The use of quantitative indicators is essential so that sustainability can be measured more accurately and that the intermediate stages of the process towards more sustainable systems and, consequently, the contribution of aquaculture to achieving the SDG s can be evaluated.
Results and Discussion
The analyses showed that aquaculture sustainability indicators make it possible to meet one or more of the SDGs of the U nited Nations 2030 Agenda (UN, 2015) . These manage to relate to sustainability in its most diverse areas, as we can see in the figure below.
The use of quantitative indicators is fundamental so that sustainability can be measured more accurately and that the intermediate stages of the process towards more sustainable systems can be evaluated and, consequently, the contribution of aquaculture to achieving the SDGs. Even indicators based on qualitative variables should be transformed into a semi-quantitative scale to assess the degree of sustainability and the evolution after interventions by the public and private sector actions. (Valenti et al. 2018). This would allow public policies to be better evaluated and redirected to meet their purposes.
In addition to allowing the evaluation of the contributions of aquaculture to the achievement of the SDG targets, aquaculture sustainability indicators can serve as a tool to assist in the analysis of other sustainability measures such as the Corporate Sustainability Index or the ESG System – Environment, Social, and Governance.
Conclusions
This study showed that the Brazilian Federal constitution supports the four dimensions of sustainability; therefore, the concepts can be applied to national aquaculture and other economic activities.
The study also showed that the Desired States (DS) to achieve sustainable aquaculture are closely linked to the Susta inable Development Goals (SDGs). This means that achieving sustainability also contributes to achieving the SDGs.
The sustainability indicators in aquaculture selected in this study can represent the desirable states, measuring their variation and evolution towards sustainable systems in the environmental, social, and economic dimensions. Therefore, they can also be used to assess the evolution of aquaculture as a driver of sustainable development for various purposes contained in the SDGs,
References
UN (United Nations), 2015. UN General Assembly, Transforming our world: the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development, 21 October 2015, A/RES/70/1., United
Nations, Treaty Series, 1771, 35p.
Valenti, W. C., Kimpara, J. M., Preto, B. D. L., & Moraes-Valenti, P. (2018). Indicators of sustainability to assess aquaculture systems . Ecological indicators, 88, 402-413.