Ponds are among the most biodiverse and ecologically significant freshwater ecosystems, and their worth is found not just in individual ponds but, more importantly, in pond networks (pondscapes). Ponds contribute significantly to society through the ecosystem services they provide, and effective pondscape conservation is critical to ensuring that these services are maintained. These small bodies of water also provide significant amenities, including better physical and mental well- being and increased understanding of biodiversity and nature conservation. Despite these advantages, present national and international environmental legislation and management techniques are nearly entirely focused on large bodies of water, with ponds being more difficult to identify, analyze, monitor, and protect. Despite the existence of well-established international environmental and nature conservation policies (e.g., the Ramsar Convention and Convention on Biological Diversity), ponds are largely missing from national and international legislation and policy frameworks. Individual site designations for pond conservation do not work at the landscape scale, where ponds contribute the most to biodiversity. According to recent data, pondscapes support high biodiversity and contribute disproportionately more to watershed aquatic biodiversity than bigger and more commonly studied freshwater bodies like lakes and rivers. Ponds also provide critical habitat for many rare and threatened species on a national and worldwide scale, and they serve as key refuges in urban and agricultural settings. In the Youth4Water Plus campaign, a capacity-building session on ponds was useful to understand the importance of ponds and their role in biodiversity.
The European Union’s Water Framework Directive (WFD) was adopted to safeguard and improve the water quality of all freshwaters and shallow coastal waters. However, in reality, the WFD only applies to rivers and standing water bodies larger than 50 hectares, leaving out the vast majority of small wetlands and lentic water bodies. One cause for this could be a lack of holistic biodiversity or water quality studies of ponds in international or national monitoring programs. In Japan, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism conducts nationwide and long-term censuses of water quality and biodiversity in rivers and impounded reservoirs. Local governments monitor lake water quality, and the Ministry of the Environment assesses the biodiversity of approximately 20 wetlands or lakes. Almost all ponds and pondscapes in India are exempt from environmental and nature conservation legislation. The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 also provides some protection to a few ponds within protected zones. However, there have been fierce disagreements between civil society and central administrations due to limits on operations in these wetlands. Developing pond legislation in India is difficult because irrigation departments, fisheries departments, and district councils sometimes control them together.
Ponds may be protected indirectly through other legislation. South Africa’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP, 2005) and Namibia’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NNBSAP, 2013), for example, aim to integrate terrestrial and aquatic management in order to reduce the impacts of processes that threaten biodiversity, improve ecosystem services, and improve social and economic security. Pond security is thus incorporated in policies aimed at water security, biodiversity protection, and resilience in such water-scarce countries, without directly referring to the hundreds of water retention ponds found across these countries. Importantly, both of these southern African NBSAPs emphasize the need of protecting endemic species as well as hydrology, resilience, and sustainability.
Pond-scape conservation and management should supplement the present national and international nature conservation and water policy or legislation, as pondscapes can safeguard species in environments where large- scale traditional conservation areas cannot be constructed. Currently, there is enough research to support policy suggestions for ponds. Given that ponds are frequently found in networks connected by critical terrestrial habitats, designating groups of important sites as management units will be logistically easier and less expensive than monitoring or protecting individual ponds. Defining pondscapes as management units expands the chances for monitoring ponds over larger areas and identifying objectives for each pond-scape. Furthermore, requiring licenses for pond alterations (positive or negative) provides a policy tool that can examine the role of each pond within the pond-scape, and applicants would be required to maintain or enhance a pond’s capacity to sustain natural biodiversity within the pond- scape. Pond management units and permits would be best implemented by local governments or non-governmental environmental organizations.
Open water-sustainable urban drainage systems, along with other nature-based solutions, might be prioritized in planning rules. Enhancing the tourism and social aspect of pondscapes can also contribute immensely to their maintenance and conservation. Pond loss mitigation should be centered on pond-scape scale factors rather than individual habitat construction. In addition, during urban growth, there should be an emphasis on zero ecological loss rather than zero habitat loss, and ponds could play an important role in this strategy.
Stormwater ponds can maintain high biodiversity under certain conditions, particularly when a treatment train of clean water ponds is initially segregated from ponds receiving contaminated water. Diverting runoff water from lakes or rivers into such ponds could improve pond density and biodiversity in urban areas, as well as help alleviate flooding and retain pollutants. Pondscapes can be incorporated into regulations as a result of the current tendency towards natural flood management. Ponds are easily integrated into open water flood storage techniques because they represent fewer logistical challenges than bigger bodies of water while holding a similar volume of water. It may also be straightforward to incorporate a large number of small ponds into urban or rural land management schemes, such as the “sponge city” concept that is now being implemented in China.
Current conservation policies are failing to protect a large portion of the aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by pondscapes. Pondscapes should be better incorporated into national and international policy frameworks to maximize the chances of conserving and safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services, in order for policies to be congruent with current scientific understanding. Although the economic ramifications of new environmental policies may be debated in certain quarters, pondscapes may be easier to conserve and maintain than larger bodies of water due to their small size. Moving away from site-specific conservation and towards a strategy that conserves resilient landscapes, places people at the center of the environment, and increases natural capital would help conserve biodiversity. An evidence-based conservation plan that includes pondscapes in policy frameworks will greatly improve existing legislation by safeguarding a valuable, multifunctional habitat type that addresses several difficult social concerns while supporting and enhancing biological diversity.
Views expressed by Preetikrishna Panda, Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP), School of Human Settlements at XIM University, Bhubaneswar.
