On the difference between exclosures and enclosures in ecology and the environment

Abstract

Rehabilitation of degraded land in arid and semiarid environments often involves excluding livestock from degraded sites, creating what are usually but unfortunately not consistently, called exclosures. Their main objective is to allow native vegetation to regenerate as a means of providing fodder and woody biomass, to reduce soil erosion and to increase rain water infiltration. We are concerned that some of the alternative names for this practice that are reported in the international literature, including closed area, area closure and enclosure, may lead to confusion and misunderstanding, especially when these are used as synonyms. Here we aim to illustrate the difference between exclosures and enclosures using recent ecological and environmental literature and provide guidance for their proper use.