Firstly, the authors illustrate the abundance of references and initiatives enabling to implement sustainable development in aquaculture. They develop a chart to assess such initiatives with regards to the main features of sustainable development. Secondly, this paper outlines the co-construction approach of principles, criteria and indicators, selected in reference to the assumption that implementing sustainable development requires a stakeholder commitment and a collective learning process. The construction of indicators is based on criteria which refer to principles accounting for local issues and stakeholder representations of sustainable development. Finally, the third part of the paper provides a reflexive analysis of the protocol which is proposed so as to develop a more general inventory of conditions and procedures for the appropriation of sustainable development. Focusing on these conditions and procedures outlines the need for collective learning regarding the appropriation of a new value system. They also emphasize on the organizational and institutional conditions of this learning process; this implies defining a co-construction system and taking into account intermediate elements. Consequently, the proposed approach underlines the multiplicity of indicator functions. As a result, criteria and indicators are “facilitating” and “mediating” tools for stakeholders, employed in the deconstruction/construction process for implementing sustainable development. Thus the authors agree with the recent observations stemming from the evaluation of sustainable development indicators’ construction approaches. These approaches demonstrate the significance of their supporting role in the consultation process.