So the challenge that is before us is to attempt to manage and restore multiple capitals and assets of different kinds (ecosystem structure, biodiversity, resources, the quantity and quality of water, human settlements) as well as their interactions across scales, and to do this at regional or watershed scales over time periods long enough to achieve something akin to intergenerational equity. Our starting place is from mostly highly modified landscapes and waterscapes and we must do this with limited resources and information. There have been many attempts to restore landscapes at local scales and many local successes but, overall, the indicators show that more needs to be done. Local successes do not eliminate large-scale decline – and vice versa. We must find ways of causing the whole to become more than the sum of the parts: there must be more integration and the exploitation of synergies and the benefits of SGC. It is clear that just scattering ‘best management practices’ across landscapes does not bring us to where we need to be; we need to find ways to exploit the non-linear interactions, synergies and emergent properties of the pandemonium of natural interactions (which we understand but poorly) to add value to what we may do ourselves.