Use of Indicators to Evaluate Sustainability of Animal Production Systems

SUMMARY – Few indicators for sustainability are used in studying animal production systems. Sustainability of these systems should be evaluated in a dynamic and multidisciplinary manner, and those indicators used should allow for detecting the systems' most relevant properties, as well as the t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Nahed Toral, José, García Barrios, Luis, Castel Genís, José María, Mena Guerrero, Yolanda
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2006
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/87063
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/87063
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Goat and sheep production systems
Sustainability
Indicators
Descripción
Sumario:SUMMARY – Few indicators for sustainability are used in studying animal production systems. Sustainability of these systems should be evaluated in a dynamic and multidisciplinary manner, and those indicators used should allow for detecting the systems' most relevant properties, as well as the tendency of those systems to change. Indicators proposed by FAO provide information regarding all attributes of sustainability, although in a manner which is overly focused on technical and economic indicators at the expense of social and environmental factors. In order to use these indicators to evaluate sustainability, it is necessary to: (i) integrate and reduce the number of indicators, balancing them for all sustainability attributes; (ii) generate indicators which show system sustainability in relation to the economic, environmental and social context; and (iii) design indicators which show system evolution and the influence of this process on that system’s sustainability.