Wildlife fences are constructed for a variety of reasons including to prevent the spread of diseases, protect wildlife from poachers, and to help manage small populations of threatened species. Humanwildlife conflict is another common reason for building fences: Wildlife can damage valuable livestock, crops, or infrastructure, some species carry diseases of agricultural concern, and a few threaten human lives.

At the same time, people kill wild animals for food, trade, or to defend lives or property, and human activities degrade wildlife habitat. Separating people and wildlife by fencing can appear to be a mutually benecial way to avoid such detrimental effects. But in a paper in the journal Science, published April 4th, WCS and ZSL scientists review the 'pros and cons' of large scale fencing and argue that fencing should often be a last resort.

Although fencing can have conservation benefits, it also has costs. When areas of contiguous wildlife habitat are converted into islands, the resulting small and isolated populations are prone to extinction, and the resulting loss of predators and other larger-bodied species can affect interactions between species in ways that cause further local extinctions, a process which has been termed "ecological meltdown".

"In some parts of the world, fencing is part of the culture of wildlife conservation it's assumed that all wildlife areas have to be fenced. But fencing profoundly alters ecosystems, and can cause some species to disappear.

In addition to their ecosystem-wide impact, fences do not always achieve their specific aims. Construction of fences to reduce humanwildlife conflict has been successful in some places but the challenges of appropriate fence design, location, construction, and maintenance mean that fences often fail to deliver the anticipated benefits. Ironically, in some places, fences also provide poachers with a ready supply of wire for making snares.

Co-author Simon Hedges of WCS said: "A variety of alternative approaches including better animal husbandry, community-based crop-guarding, insurance schemes, and wildlife-sensitive land-use planning can be used to mitigate conicts between people and wildlife without the need for fencing. WCS projects working with local people and government agencies have shown that humanelephant conflict can be dramatically reduced without using fences in countries as different as Indonesia and Tanzania."

Co-author Sarah Durant of ZSL's said, "An increased awareness of the damage caused by fencing is leading to movements to remove fences instead of building more. Increasingly, fencing is seen as backwards step in conservation."

Continue reading at Wildlife Conservation Society.

Savannah fence imagevia Shutterstock.

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Fences May Cause 'Ecological Meltdown' of Wildlife

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If you want to protect endangered species in the wild, don't fence them in. An article in the journal Science says fencing can actually harm both animals and ecosystems. Scientists at the Zoological Society of London and the Wildlife Conservation Society say the use of fences to protect threatened species should be a last resort.

Researcher Sarah Durant said, "Fences by their nature will segregate habitats and that can actually be a real problem, particularly in drylands systems where wildlife often has to move quite large distances to access resources and water. So that in itself can be a problem. And then you have wide-ranging species, such as cheetah and wild dog, but also elephants as well, which need access to very large connected habitat for their survival."

Fences are not very widespread right now in Africa. Durant said the biggest concentration is in South Africa.

"They're often used basically for territory protection. So people will own private land and they build fences around their private land to protect wildlife as a resource within those areas.

However, she said there's concern more fences may be built, as human populations spread further into wildlife habitats.

"Governments, for example, very often see fencing as a potential solution to addressing human-wildlife conflict. It's seen as a solution that appears more straightforward than it is in practice. Once you put a fence up, then you have to maintain it. And if you don't maintain it, you can end up with a situation where wildlife conflict could actually be higher than it was before."

Often, Durant said, local communities will actually breach such fences.

"Very marginalized communities that have problems meeting their own household needs in terms of food and nutrition - very often they will want to breach the fences to gain access to the wildlife. And also fence wire can be used to build snares and that can actually exacerbate a snaring problem."

She said many communities have developed strategies over the years to deal with marauding animals, such as elephants. Coping skills they might lose if fences are built around their communities, and then the fences are breached by one or more elephants. What's more, fences can build resentment in communities against conservation efforts.

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Africa: Fences and Wildlife Don't Mix

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If you want to protect endangered species in the wild, dont fence them in. An article in the journal Science says fencing can actually harm both animals and ecosystems. Scientists at the Zoological Society of London and the Wildlife Conservation Society say the use of fences to protect threatened species should be a last resort. Researcher Sarah Durant said, Fences by their nature will segregate habitats and that can actually be a real problem, particularly in drylands systems where wildlife often has to move quite large distances to access resources and water. So that in itself can be a problem. And then you have wide-ranging species, such as cheetah and wild dog, but also elephants as well, which need access to very large connected habitat for their survival. Fences are not very widespread right now in Africa. Durant said the biggest concentration is in South Africa. Theyre often used basically for territory protection. So people will own private land and they build fences around their private land to protect wildlife as a resource within those areas. However, she said theres concern more fences may be built, as human populations spread further into wildlife habitats. Governments, for example, very often see fencing as a potential solution to addressing human-wildlife conflict. Its seen as a solution that appears more straightforward than it is in practice. Once you put a fence up, then you have to maintain it. And if you dont maintain it, you can end up with a situation where wildlife conflict could actually be higher than it was before. Often, Durant said, local communities will actually breach such fences. Very marginalized communities that have problems meeting their own household needs in terms of food and nutrition very often they will want to breach the fences to gain access to the wildlife. And also fence wire can be used to build snares and that can actually exacerbate a snaring problem. She said many communities have developed strategies over the years to deal with marauding animals, such as elephants. Coping skills they might lose if fences are built around their communities, and then the fences are breached by one or more elephants. Whats more, fences can build resentment in communities against conservation efforts. Besides that, the wildlife researcher said fences can affect predator-prey dynamics. When you look at some of the densities of lions in fenced reserves what you find is that theyre actually kept at levels much higher than what the areas would be expected to support. So that suggests that its actually altering the predator-prey dynamics. And lions arent the only predators in ecosystems. Youve also got other predators such as spotted hyenas, wild dogs, she said. Predators, such as cheetahs and wild dogs, need a lot of space. They need areas in excess of 10,000 square kilometers, if youre going to support what we call viable and sustainable populations of these species. They need very wide areas of connected habitat. Elephants and wildebeests can need areas in excess of tens of thousands square kilometers, particularly where youve got migratory systems, such as you have in the Serengeti, where the wildebeests will range across areas in excess of 20,000 square kilometers, she said. Durant said one well-known fencing disaster occurred in the Kalahari. The fence was a veterinary cordon barrier. It was designed to separate wildebeests from cattle and prevent disease from being transmitted to cattle herds. What happened, she said, was the collapse of the wildebeest migrations in that region. Instead of spending a lot of money to build and maintain fences, she said, invest that money in alternative approaches. These include improved animal husbandry, community-based crop protection, insurance programs and sensitive use of land to help prevent human-wildlife conflict. The authors of the article do say fences can be valuable resources in some cases. They cited the protection of birds in New Zealand against foreign species -- and safeguarding wolves and lynx in Scotland.

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Fences and Wildlife Dont Mix

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Dont fence me in!

Study in Journal Science Says: fences can cause ecological meltdown of wildlife

Newswise NEW YORK (Embargoed Not for release until 14:00 EST 3 April 2014) Wildlife fences are constructed for a variety of reasons including to prevent the spread of diseases, protect wildlife from poachers, and to help manage small populations of threatened species. Humanwildlife conflict is another common reason for building fences: Wildlife can damage valuable livestock, crops, or infrastructure, some species carry diseases of agricultural concern, and a few threaten human lives. At the same time, people kill wild animals for food, trade, or to defend lives or property, and human activities degrade wildlife habitat. Separating people and wildlife by fencing can appear to be a mutually benecial way to avoid such detrimental effects. But in a paper in the journal Science, published today, April 4th, 2014, WCS and ZSL scientists review the pros and cons of large scale fencing and argue that fencing should often be a last resort.

Although fencing can have conservation benefits, it also has costs. When areas of contiguous wildlife habitat are converted into islands, the resulting small and isolated populations are prone to extinction, and the resulting loss of predators and other larger-bodied species can affect interactions between species in ways that cause further local extinctions, a process which has been termed ecological meltdown.

In some parts of the world, fencing is part of the culture of wildlife conservation its assumed that all wildlife areas have to be fenced. But fencing profoundly alters ecosystems, and can cause some species to disappear. Were asking that conservationists as well as other sectoral interests carefully weigh up the biodiversity costs and benefits of new and existing fences, said ZSLs Rosie Woodroffe, lead author of the study.

In addition to their ecosystem-wide impact, fences do not always achieve their specific aims. Construction of fences to reduce humanwildlife conflict has been successful in some places but the challenges of appropriate fence design, location, construction, and maintenance mean that fences often fail to deliver the anticipated benefits. Ironically, in some places, fences also provide poachers with a ready supply of wire for making snares.

Co-author Simon Hedges of WCS said: A variety of alternative approaches including better animal husbandry, community-based crop-guarding, insurance schemes, and wildlife-sensitive land-use planning can be used to mitigate conicts between people and wildlife without the need for fencing. WCS projects working with local people and government agencies have shown that humanelephant conflict can be dramatically reduced without using fences in countries as different as Indonesia and Tanzania.

Co-author Sarah Durant of ZSLs said, An increased awareness of the damage caused by fencing is leading to movements to remove fences instead of building more. Increasingly, fencing is seen as backwards step in conservation.

Read the original:
Fences Cause "Ecological Meltdown