Putting Resilience Theory into Practice: The Example of Fisheries Management

Abstract

Resilience theory offers lawmakers a different way of thinking about natural resources management. This new viewpoint, which emphasizes that natural systems are complex, interconnected, and constantly changing, is especially appropriate as climate change increasingly interacts with other anthropogenic stresses to increase the unpredictability of complex natural and social-ecological systems.

This article provides an introduction to resilience theory and the concepts of ecological resilience, adaptive cycles, and anarchy. It then applies resilience theory to commercial marine fisheries management, explaining why Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) is an inappropriate management standard for the Anthropocene and offering suggestions for improved marine fisheries management.

Keywords: resilience theory, panarchy, ecological resilience, engineering resilience, fisheries, Anthropocene