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Pastoral use of the New South Wales rangelands has not been sustainable. Change in land use policy is required to achieve sustainability. Yet without understanding how this evolving social-ecological system responds to interventions change may not succeed. Working with knowledgeable stakeholders in the NSW rangelands we have explored land use options, their suitabilities and compatibilities. Working with policy makers we have developed policies to support sustainable land use and are now refining strategies for implementing these policies. to do this we draw from theories of complex adaptive systems and social psychology. Critical to our success will be strategies that build shared knowledge, seek negotiated rather than legal solutions, and work within the system to be changed not external to it.