Recent challenges from global warming, severe droughts, and human activities have underscored the urgent need for a thorough examination of vegetation resilience. Taking the South China Karst as an example, this study quantified vegetation resilience and its nonlinear changes across various environmental gradients by analyzing the lag-1 autocorrelation of time-series Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from 1990 to 2018 and identified the factors driving these variations. The results indicated that vegetation resilience in the South China Karst experienced non-monotonic changes over time. Specifically, during the initial phase (pre-2002), increases in precipitation and temperature enhanced regional resilience (slope = −0.045, p < 0.0001); the second phase (2002–2010) showed a less significant rise in resilience, suggesting challenges in aligning with vegetation productivity, likely due to delayed ecological restoration effects; in the third phase (post-2010), ongoing restoration efforts led to a marked improvement in resilience, with the highest increase (slope = −0.128, p < 0.0001). Further, vegetation resilience exhibited strong environmental dependency. Karst regions, especially after 2010, demonstrated more significant increases in resilience compared to non-Karst areas; deeper soils were associated with higher resilience, emphasizing the role of soil depth; regions with steeper slopes (>25°) experienced the greatest increases in resilience, particularly in meadows, which were prioritized for ecological restoration due to their strong resilience. This study provides critical insights into the dynamics of karst vegetation ecosystems, highlights the significance of ecological restoration in enhancing resilience amid environmental challenges, and proposes valuable guidance for optimizing karst ecosystems in light of ongoing global changes.