Non-monetary techniques for the valuation of ecosystem services

Non-monetary approaches can be applied in various stages of ecosystem planning and management, e.g. in problem framing, mapping, valuation, and decision making. They examine the importance, preferences, needs or demands expressed by people towards nature, and articulate plural values through different qualitative and quantitative measures other than money (Chan et al., 2012). They can grasp the multidimensional nature of human well-being with monetary value being just one aspect of importance beside e.g. symbolic, cultural, ecological and spiritual.