In this study a simulation model was built in the proprietary software (STELLA) of the environmental and livelihood outcomes that might be expected from the development of oil palm estates in Indonesian Borneo. The model was then used to answer “what if” questions and its use greatly enriched the local debate on the pros and cons of the planned establishment of industrial scale estates. However, our overall impression is that such tools are not widely employed in practice and are still mainly used by researchers. These tools are a valuable resource in harnessing traditional knowledge to modern knowledge and innovation systems and deserve to be much more widely used in natural resource management.