Developing Fencing Policies For Dryland Ecosystems. (2015)

1. In dryland ecosystems, mobility is essential for both wildlife and people to access unpre-dictable and spatially heterogeneous resources, particularly in the face of climate change. Fences can prevent connectivity vital for this mobility. 2. There are recent calls for large-scale barrier fencing interventions to address human–wild-life conflict and illegal resource extraction. Fencing has costs and benefits to people and wild-life. However, the evidence available for facilitating sound decision-making for fencing initiatives is limited, particularly for drylands. 3. We identify six research areas that are key to informing evaluations of fencing initiatives: economics, edge permeability, reserve design, connectivity, ecosystem services and communities. 4. Policy implications.