As regulatory complexity has increased, opportunities for innovation have narrowed. This unintended consequence has eroded flexibility in planning for, and managing, variable targets as a part of EBM. Such variability is a feature of EBM where the natural range of variation (NRV) is a foundation.

However, opportunities to incorporate variation have recently been presented. VOITs typically display variation over the long-term planning horizon, and Forest Management Plans now routinely show the target variation as upper and lower NRV limits. Voluntary standards for NRV analysis and target setting propose that targets should be set within NRV.