New policy directions for global pond conservation

Abstract

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. Ponds are among the most biodiverse and ecologically important freshwater habitats, and their value lies not only in individual ponds, but more importantly, in networks of ponds (pondscapes). Ponds make an important contribution to society through the ecosystem services they provide, with effective conservation of pondscapes essential to ensuring that these services are maintained. Implementation of current pond conservation through individual site designations does not function at the landscape scale, where ponds contribute most to biodiversity. Conservation and management of pondscapes should complement current national and international nature conservation and water policy/legislation, as pondscapes can provide species protection in landscapes where large-scale traditional conservation areas cannot be established (e.g., urban or agricultural landscapes). We propose practical steps for the effective incorporation or enhancement of ponds within five policy areas: through open water sustainable urban drainage systems in urban planning, increased incentives in agrienvironment schemes, curriculum inclusion in education, emphasis onThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Macrophytes promote aquatic insect conservation in artificial ponds

“…Furthermore, large size often goes hand in hand with depth, and in the Midlands of KZN, lentic dragonfly larvae do not live at depths >1.2 m (Samways et al, ), so size with concurrent depth is probably less important than habitat heterogeneity. This also suggests value in conserving even the smallest ponds as components of the overall pondscape (Butler & deMaynadier, ; Hill et al, ).…”

“…Agricultural ponds should not be seen as a replacement for natural ponds, but rather an extension of the overall pondscape (Hill et al, ). Globally, this adds to the growing literature showing that agro‐forestry ponds make the landscape more permeable for most aquatic organisms (Hill et al, ). Pond size had little effect, with only water beetles in sugarcane ponds responding to size.…”

“…This is in agreement with other production landscapes around the world, with well‐vegetated artificial ponds supporting frogs in corn and soybean areas of the USA (Knutson et al, ) and sugarcane areas of Brazil (Silva, Candeira, & Rossa‐Feres, ). Well‐vegetated lentic systems associated with sugar production have been shown to support Brazilian fish, frogs and aquatic insects (Schiesari & Corrêa, ) and Australian fish (Arthington, Godfrey, Pearson, Karim, & Wallace, ), suggesting wide applicability around the world (Hill et al, ).…”

Urban freshwaters, biodiversity, and human health and well‐being: Setting an interdisciplinary research agenda

“…While most of this research has focused on coastal settings (Wheeler, White, Stahl‐Timmins, & Depledge, ), a small but growing body of research suggests that urban freshwater bodies can protect health and support well‐being through masking traffic noise (Jeon, Lee, You, & Kang, ; You, Lee, & Jeon, ), mitigating summertime temperatures (Völker et al, ), providing high levels of restorativeness (Thomas, ; White et al, ) (also see Korpela (2013) for further discussion of restorativeness), and providing spaces for improved physical activity, social interaction, and recreation (Thomas, ; Völker & Kistemann, ). Such health‐related services, alongside other benefits such as flood mitigation and water quality enhancement, have been proposed as a key argument for the redefinition of global policies around smaller water bodies such as ponds, which are typically excluded from conservation policy (Hill et al, ).…”

Managing farm ponds as breeding sites for amphibians: key trade‐offs in agricultural function and habitat conservation

“…), present one often overlooked opportunity to do so (Downing , Hill et al. ). While farm ponds worldwide have been shown to support a suite of organisms including waterbirds (Sebastián‐González et al.…”