There are different public and private groups of individuals that can affect or be affected by policy decisions relevant for pondscapes. From public authorities at local and national levels, to land managers, farmers, NGOs and local citizens, all of them have particular perceptions, objectives and needs in relation to ponds and pondscapes that must be considered. For this reason, PONDERFUL follows a multi-actor approach where stakeholder interaction is key for the achievement of its objectives.
Local stakeholders are important sources of data, insights and ideas for PONDERFUL researchers. Engaging stakeholders also contributes to building trust, and establishing a common ground between stakeholders and researchers to ensure that the environmental decisions are fair and account for a variety of values and requirements.
In PONDERFUL, stakeholders are involved, both in project development itself, and also in the work on the ground, for the creation of ponds and planning their management.
One of the most important stakeholder-related activities at PONDERFUL are workshops, where project’s researchers meet with stakeholders, present relevant results of PONDERFUL, discuss the project and request stakeholders for inputs to different project’s activities.
At each PONDERFUL DEMO-site, three different workshops are being conducted in the framework of the project. On the first workshop, stakeholders’ needs and concerns are discussed. In addition, researchers and stakeholder can explore together social and economic aspects of ponds. The second workshop explores policies that are relevant for ponds in particular DEMO-sites and start co-developing future positive scenarios for their pondscapes. Finally, on the third workshop we co-create resources to be used by practitioners and policy makers, as well as communicate and disseminate the project’s results. During the workshops, the financing of ponds is also discussed during a special session that is organised in a selection of three DEMO-sites.
