We investigate the question of how the knowledge of sufficiently many local conservation laws for a model can be used to solve it. We show that for models where the conservation laws can be written in one-sided forms, [Formula: see text] like the problem can always be reduced to solving a closed system of ordinary differential equations. We investigate the A1, A2 and B2 Toda field theories in considerable detail from this viewpoint. One of our findings is that there is in each case a transformation group intrinsic to the model. This group is built on a specific real form of the Lie algebra used to label the Toda field theory. It is the group of field transformations which leaves the conserved densities invariant.