Revegetation programs usually consist of just planting a quota of trees. Bio^R aims to reconstruct habitats that mimic natural habitats with the full complement of plant species from grasses, herbs and shrubs to trees. Importantly Bio^R aims to build habitats that match the original densities of plants and how the various species are intermixed, as this determines the types and numbers of animal species that can be supported in the new habitats.

Bio^R uses science to determine the types of habitat that once existed on different parts of properties using features such as soil and topography, and observations on remnant vegetation. Observations on spacing of individual plants of different species, on their branching patterns and how they are intermingled with other plants provides not only a template to guide initial plantings, but also a basis against which newly constructed habitats can be compared and success ultimately judged.

Most revegetation programs consist of an initial investment in planting seedlings, followed by at most a few years of management to confirm that some of the plants establish. Success is often measured as the number of plants that initially establish. This does not secure habitat that benefits fauna. Bio^R believes ongoing investment is needed to manage the initial plantings and to build all the other elements that make effective, self-sustaining and resilient habitats. Effective habitat is habitat that supports wildlife. Self-sustaining habitat is habitat where the plants and animals are able to reproduce adequately to maintain their abundance through time. Resilient habitats are those that can cope with and recover from perturbations like droughts and fire.

Reconstructing and managing new habitats requires continuous on-going funding. Governments, however, do not commit to long-term funding of such initiatives, so alternatives are required. Bio^R believes that the only way to provide long-term secure funding is to establish Trust Funds for individual projects. The Trust Fund is furnished with a substantial sum of money that is securely invested and the annual income from these investments is then used to fund on-going works. In this way initial investments are protected by on-going investment. Establishing Trust Funds will require significant sums of money, but if everyone contributed a little by offsetting their ecological footprints then this can be delivered for multiple projects.

Bio^R is not satisfied with planting out a hectare or two, as one might do in a standard revegetation project. Instead Bio^R aims to put back sufficient habitat within landscapes to meet the needs of wildlife. To maintain viable populations of most species will require thousands of hectares of re-constructed habitat in heavily cleared areas, such as the Mt Lofty region in South Australia. This means building habitat at a scale much larger than has ever been attempted before.