Effects and Implications of Enclosures for Rehabilitating Degraded Semi-arid Rangelands: Critical Lessons from Lake Baringo Basin, Kenya

Abstract

The establishment of enclosures, denoting areas closed off from grazing for a specific period, is a well-known management strategy for restoring degraded semi-arid rangeland ecosystems. Range enclosure has profound ecological (biophysical) effects and a number of socio-economic implications that vary significantly, depending on local conditions. Understanding the consequences of the rising trend of rangeland enclosure is thus imperative for sustainable planning and management of these fragile ecosystems. Indeed, what administrators require is not a general policy for or against enclosure, but rather some understanding of the various effects of enclosure under different circumstances. Ultimately, researchers may be able to present policy-makers with a typology of different kinds of enclosure movements, and with a systematic discussion of the probable outcome of each kind of movement. Therefore, the spontaneous enclosure of the range by livestock owners may raise new problems, but may also permit new approaches to the development of the livestock industry in the arid and semi-arid areas in Africa. This paper seeks to highlight the effects and implications of using enclosures for rehabilitating degraded semi-arid rangelands and draw practical lessons to help us achieve increased restoration capability in the future.