Financing has been identified as a key barrier that limits the upscaling of nature-based solutions (NBS), including pondscapes. This report aims to address this challenge by supporting pondscape developers to answer a simple question: how can I pay for my pondscape project?

The PONDERFUL Sustainable Finance Inventory consists of a total of 22 financing instruments for nature-based solutions (NBS). Each instrument is matched by at least one concrete example of the financing instrument in action. Different financing instruments have different strengths and weaknesses, making them more or less appropriate for different contexts and actors. The Inventory aims to support pondscape developers to understand financing options and identify the finance instruments best suited to their pondscape NBS project.

Recognizing the European Union's (EU) influential role in shaping NBS conceptualization, we undertook a qualitative content analysis of 38 EU policies to discern opportunities and limitations in implementing ponds and pondscapes as nature-based solutions (NBS). While our primary focus is on these aquatic habitats, their ubiquity and diverse benefits enable extrapolation to broader implications for NBS in the EU.

This article reviews the role of ponds and pondscapes in delivering Nature's Contributions to People and provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities for their broader implementation as Nature-based Solutions. The authors, among them Manuel Lago (Ecologic Institute) propose a conceptual framework that can help the implementation of pond Nature-based Solutions, and that outlines future research needs.

The H2020 EU-funded PONDERFUL project will investigate how ponds can be used as nature-based solutions (NBS) for climate change. It will evaluate the interaction and feedback between biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate in pondscapes.