The Brisbane City Council has sought to develop Brisbane as an urban forest. This policy commenced in 2008 with a decision to plant 2 million trees across Brisbane, a target since achieved. The Urban Forest project is restoring the forest habitat across Brisbane's urban environment and contributing to the Council's environment policy. In addition the Council owns and manages more than 2200 parks and natural areas covering over 14,500 hectares. The Council supports a number of partnerships contributing to protection of the natural environment. These include Habitat Brisbane Groups and Wildlife Conservation Partnerships.

While Brisbane provideswa good non-European example of good environment practice, the European Commission's Green Capital Awards continues to identify and reward good practice with Ljubljana recently identified as the European Green Capital for 2016 joining cities such as Stockholm, Hamburg, aqnd Copenhagen bwhich have held this award.