Environmental valuation tools are one way of estimating what value the community places on native vegetation, and can be useful for the development of incentive programs. Each technique used to assess the non-use value of native vegetation and other natural resources has a range of assumptions and different levels of theory underpinning it. Many are the subject of ongoing research, which is required to further define the strengths and limitations of these approaches.

Some key pointers have been identified in the National Land & Water Resources Audit on the values that the broader community place on natural systems and how much they might be prepared to pay to keep them. It would be informative to undertake further research on the community’s ‘willingness to pay’ to see how it might have changed with the move to regionally-based management of native vegetation. As more people become more closely involved with these processes at a regional scale, some significant changes could occur.