A three-step pathway for integrating resilience into marine policy and management

As climate change intensifies, social-ecological systems face increasing pressures that can trigger abrupt and persistent transformations. These transformations are called regime shifts and are characterized by critical transitions into novel states once thresholds, or tipping points, are crossed. Estimating resilience and preventing tipping points should be a management priority. However, resilience remains rarely operationalized in policy. This gap reflects multiple definitions, conceptual ambiguities, and difficulties in quantifying resilience in practice. Here, we propose a pathway to operationalize resilience within ecosystem-based management, using the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the European Union's main instrument for implementing an ecosystem approach, as an illustrative example. The pathway comprises three steps: clearly defining resilience, selecting appropriate methods to assess it, and establishing resilience-oriented thresholds to guide management. Implementing these steps requires a paradigm shift toward holistic approaches that account for uncertainty. Integrating resilience into management is essential to safeguard ecosystems under accelerating climate change.