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The Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne is an important site for the conservation of native plants and animals. Because much of the surrounding land has been cleared or modified since European settlement, areas of remaining native vegetation like that found at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne contain plant and animals species which are now rare throughout the state or region.

A large proportion of the Gardens' native vegetation is categorised as heathland or heathy woodland: a fire-prone community composed mostly of small leafed, drought-tolerant shrubs.

These plants have adapted to living on the ancient sand dunes that formed between Port Phillip Bay and Westernport during the last ice age. Before European settlement, this vegetation extended over hundreds of square kilometres. With clearing for agriculture and housing, it has been left in only a few small sites.

Due to their dry nature and the high concentrations of volatile oils contained in their leaves, heathland plants are fire prone and have adapted well to periodic fire. Most species survive fire and either regenerate from underground rootstock or from seeds that lie dormant in the soil. Some heathland species depend on fire for regeneration and flourish after fire. Periodic fire is therefore important if these species are to continue to survive in an area.

Before European settlement when there were large areas of heathland covering the region, fires resulting from lightening strikes or lit by local aboriginal people would have probably been a regular occurrence. Some areas of heathland would have been old, while others would have been recently burnt. The fire pattern would have formed a natural mosaic of different aged vegetation over a large area.

Now, with small remnant areas of isolated heathland, conservation agencies like the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne have to manage the vegetation so that many ages of vegetation are represented in reserves. This way the biodiversity of heathland communities can be maintained.

The Royal Botanic Gardens has developed a fire management plan that incorporates the controlled use of fire to maintain heathland biodiversity. This plan involves the strategic ecological burning of selected small patches of heathland on an annual basis.