Below is an extract from a blog by Sheila Gundry, Operations Manager at Froglife, which is part of the ‘LINK Thinks COP15’ series by Scottish Environment LINK.

‘The new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy offers a significant opportunity to restore Scotland’s ecosystems and reverse species declines. Our natural environment is in crisis, and we urgently need an ambitious new strategy with clear targets. Freshwater ecosystems are essential for biodiversity, providing habitat for a wide array of aquatic species while also helping to reduce the impacts of major threats including climate change, flooding, chemical pollution, and noise pollution.

Unfortunately, the number of good quality freshwater habitats in the UK are dwindling, with many ponds being filled in to make room for development, being polluted by chemical run-off, or simply being lost due to poor management.

National wildlife charity Froglife has been tackling this issue through an innovative project, Fife Living Waters, funded by the Scottish Power Foundation. This one-year project has been focused on restoring freshwater ecosystems in Cowdenbeath (Fife, Scotland) through creating and restoring many ponds and engaging with local communities.  Fife Living Waters has been working across two key sites, Cowdenbeath Wetland and Swans Pond, delivering ambitious targets for freshwater habitat creation.

Lack of high-quality ponds and wetlands in the UK

Many species depend on freshwater habitats, but there is a serious lack of high-quality ponds and wetlands in the UK. Restoring these habitats is straightforward, we need to create lots of new, high-quality ponds. All new ponds are valuable, from small garden ponds up to large-scale wetlands. We need to be creating a variety of freshwater habitats of varying shapes and sizes to deliver the best outcome for biodiversity. While restoring existing ponds is also useful, it is always better to create a new pond instead if this is possible, as this will achieve the greatest impact. Froglife has made this easy to do by providing a free guide, Just Add Water, which takes you through the steps of how to create your own pond!

Freshwater ecosystems greatly enhance and support biodiversity and play a key role in tackling climate change. The Fife Living Waters Project has been restoring freshwater habitats through the creation of 115 new ponds and restoring 10 existing ponds across two sites in Cowdenbeath, Fife. To fully protect these essential ecosystems, and the biodiversity that depend on them, we must continue to deliver more freshwater habitat restoration projects like this one. The new Scottish Biodiversity must acknowledge the value of these ecosystems, putting in place ambitious targets for creating new freshwater habitats on a large scale and implementing long-term management of these habitats.’

The full blog can be read here.