The continuous challenge of socially and ecologically sustainable management of natural resources demands us to tirelessly monitor the management systems and increase our understanding of them. The incorporation of both human needs and biophysical conditions for life is essential for long-term sustainability. Natural resource systems are complex Social-Ecological Systems (SES) that often require multi-level management. Active cooperation between and within the levels of management and involvement of the local level, i.e. resource users, in decision-making contributes to effective management and reduces the risk of overexploitation. This thesis investigates the management of two SESs: urban gardening and moose hunting by applying the SES framework. SES framework is a comprehensive analytical framework created to integrate both social and ecological aspects relevant to the sustainability of natural resource systems. The framework emphasizes the importance of the resource users and provides an extensive list of attributes for data collection. I investigated urban box gardening in the city of Turku and moose (Alces alces) hunting nationwide in Finland, to which the SES framework has rarely been applied before. Urban gardening enhances mental, physical, and social well-being and promotes individual resilience and local biodiversity but is still struggling to reach its full potential. Moose is an ecologically, socially, culturally, and economically important species but has suffered from large population fluctuations and stakeholder conflicts. The overarching aim of this thesis is to explore the questions of how and when is natural resource management sustainable. I focus particularly on the less studied but crucial level of management: the resource users.

Chapters I and II refer to an urban gardening program, where I combined field inventories to assess the objective ecological outcome (cultivation success) and questionnaires to assess the self-perceived ecological, social, and participants´ personal outcomes. First, I found that the outcomes are decoupled, meaning that the gardeners receive multiple benefits from the activity regardless of the gardening success, and vice-versa. In addition, I found that frequent and positive social interactions, as well as sunny and safe gardening locations significantly promote self-perceived outcomes. In the second study, I investigated in a before-after study if changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in social, economic, and political settings influence the outcomes of urban gardening and the benefits it produces. I found that the pandemic disturbance influences different parts of the system in different ways. Gardeners remain motivated to take care of their cultivations but report receiving less from it during the pandemic. The findings show that the negative effect of the pandemic extends to urban gardening activity. The results emphasize the importance of urban green spaces but also the need to create practices to secure the most important benefits from them in times of crisis.

In Chapter III, I assessed the long-term stability of moose harvest for over 4000 hunting groups. I found that, on average, the harvest declined by 1.1% per year but varies substantially between Finnish hunting groups. Certain characteristics of the hunting groups promote a more stable (declining less) harvest. Specifically, early establishment and longevity of the group and promotion of regular turnover of the leaders in the group improve stable benefits from the resource. In Chapter IV I investigate hunters and hunting group management in more detail via a questionnaire study. I found that well-working decision-making and joint action in the hunting groups are positively connected to compliance with hunting recommendations. Therefore, the social performance of the group management and the measures to maintain ecological sustainability are linked. In addition, a key aspect in reaching positive outcomes seems to be high social capital within the hunting group, between the hunting groups, and between levels of management.

In this thesis, I showed that the lowest level of management – the resource users – plays an important role in reaching sustainable outcomes in two very different SESs. Understanding the role of resource users is important as considerable support from the lowest level of the management, hunters and gardeners, is required for successful management. I find that the relationship between social and ecological sustainability is complex and context-dependent and a wider definition than economic is supported for social sustainability. I introduce several dynamics and factors that can assist in designing sustainable resource management. My thesis highlights that a deeper knowledge of the social dynamics at the local level can considerably facilitate regional and national-level management of SESs. Based on the findings of this thesis, I conclude that treating natural resource systems as integrated social-ecological systems can profoundly improve their management.