A new era of habitat restoration and conservation
Published 21 July 2025
- City of Moreton Bay has updated its Land Buyback for Environmental Purposes policy to include a greater focus on restoring properties back to their native vegetation cover
- The voluntary program has secured over 100 hectares of key environmental land and connecting wildlife corridors since it was first implemented in 2020
- The policy supports Council’s goals to maintain 42% native vegetation cover and preserve 75% of the city as rural and natural landscapes
City of Moreton Bay is ready to acquire more environmentally significant land for conservation and restoration purposes following a key update to its Land Buyback for Environmental Purposes policy.
Mayor Peter Flannery said the buyback policy now included a greater focus on restoring properties back to their native vegetation cover, as well as broadening the range of acquisition opportunities to more parts of the City across an array of habitats.
“City of Moreton Bay has a huge opportunity to create a progressive city that balances the needs of protecting and enhancing the environment for current and future generations with our requirements to build more homes to reach our growth targets,” he said.
“The Land Buyback for Environmental Purposes policy is a voluntary program that has significant success since it was implemented in 2020, securing over 100 hectares of key environmental land and connecting wildlife corridors.
“While its focus has primarily been on conservation, we have now altered the scope to include the opportunity to restore vegetation to native like conditions.
“We have 84 complex regional ecosystem types throughout City of Moreton Bay, some of which are currently threatened. This update will help us not only preserve our current ecosystems but grow them and bring them back to native conditions.
“Restoring vegetation and habitats can take up to 15 years so it’s important that we have a vision for the future, to ensure that our environment can grow alongside our population in a balanced ecosystem.
“It also supports our goals to maintain 42% native vegetation cover and preserve 75% of the city as rural and natural landscapes.
“We will continue to strategically plan our acquisition program around properties that have significant conservation qualities and add to wildlife corridors, so that our local animals like koalas can move freely around our City.”
Work is currently being done to finalise an updated priority acquisition list as part of this update, which will go before Council for endorsement in the coming weeks.
Learn more about City of Moreton Bay’s updated Land Buyback for Environmental Purposes policy.