Analysing land cover patterns in relation to fencing of African national parks

Protected area fencing is often viewed as a contentious issue. Fencing is a mechanism employed in many African protected areas to provide a clearly defined physical boundary and manage issues such as human-wildlife conflict. Although the patterns associated with fencing status have been widely discussed and debated in the literature, details on how it affects the physical landscape, as expressed by land cover, remain largely underexplored. In response, this research analyses land cover patterns in relation to the fencing status (fully fenced, partially fenced, and unfenced) for 60 African national parks. We compare land cover composition for 1 km buffer zones on both sides of national park boundaries across multiple years. Paired t-tests are conducted using per-park cross-year (2020–2024) averages, followed by a Two-Way Repeated Measures ANOVA, and finally, the calculation of a land cover diversity index. Results indicate that land cover patterns differ by fencing status (i.e., are often significantly correlated with fencing status) in the areas surrounding these national parks. Patterns were most pronounced in fenced parks, which showed a sharp contrast in land cover but became less significant towards unfenced parks. The research shows that the decision to fence or not fence a protected area is likely to have substantial implications for land cover patterns and should, therefore, be guided by clear, context-specific conservation goals.