![Nymphéas et reflets](https://www.nicoleking.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/nympheas-et-reflets_300x375.jpg)
![Nymphéas et reflets](https://www.nicoleking.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/nympheas-et-reflets_300x375.jpg)
Scattered throughout our landscapes, ponds are complex ecosystems that provide shelter, food and breeding grounds for a multitude of species. Whether natural or man-made, it is estimated that 30 to 40% of them have disappeared in France since 1950. Yet they provide innumerable services (water purification and storage, limiting runoff and soil erosion…) and are part of the “nature-based solutions” to combat climate change and natural hazards. Every year, the Société nationale pour la protection de la nature (SNPN, of which I’ve been a member since I was a teenager) organizes the Fête des mares to raise awareness of the need to preserve ponds.