摘要：The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of the most powerful and controversial environmental laws in theUnited States. As a result of its uncompromising position against biodiversity loss, the ESA has become the primary driver ofmany ecological restoration efforts in the United States. This article explains why the ESA has become the impetus for so manyof these efforts and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the ESA as a primary driver from a resilience-based perspective.It argues that in order to accommodate resilience theory, several changes to ESA implementation and enforcement should bemade. First and foremost, there is a need to shift management strategies from a species-centered to a systems-based approach.Chief among the shifts required will be a more integrated approach to governance that includes a willingness to reassess demandsplaced on ecological systems by our social systems. Building resilience will also require more proactive management effortsthat support the functioning of system processes before they are endangered and on the brink of regime change. Finally, resiliencethinking requires a reorientation of management away from goals associated with achieving preservation, restoration, andoptimization and toward goals associated with fostering complexity and adaptive capacity.
关键词：Endangered Species Act; governance; resilience; social-ecological systems
