Built by human hands over thousands of years (it is estimated that of the 600,000 to 800,000 ponds in Metropolitan France, more than 95% were dug by humans), they are the holders of a very high level of biodiversity (20% of protected aquatic species on less than 0.05% of the national surface area), They are essential components of the Green and Blue Belt (GBB) and ecological networks and provide valuable and irreplaceable ecosystem functions. Ponds and small bodies of water have a heritage interest that combines natural and cultural wealth (Sajaloli, Teissier-Ensminger, 2017 ; Sajaloli, Dutilleul, 2001) 1. As a biological "hot spot", the pond is a hybrid environment, very fragile because of the ease with which it can be developed or destroyed, very mobile because of the speed of biophysical processes (landfill, filling), and very dependent on the uses and maintenance that it mobilises (Oertli, 2013; Sajaloli et alii, 2000) 2. It is also an environmental object that is widely spread in extremely different areas, ranging from rural areas (ponds in fields, meadows, forests, etc.; farm and village ponds) to urban or more artificial areas (motorway ponds, ornamental ponds, parking ponds linked to rainwater collection, etc.), coastal areas, lowland areas and medium or high mountain areas (Sajaloli, 2005) 3. It is still an object which, with climate change and the increasing scarcity of water resources (Aroua, 2016; Cereghino et alii, 2013) 4, is undergoing a transformation of its social amenities (fight against urban heat islands, water reserve in rural areas, etc.) which is giving rise to debates (agricultural substitution basin for irrigating crops in the dry season). Although the destruction of these small wetlands seems to have been slowed down (more than 90% of ponds have disappeared since the beginning of the 20th century, and more than 50% since the 1950s), it continues locally, either intentionally or due to a lack of maintenance. There is therefore an urgent need to set up programmes to protect these environments and raise awareness among the public, local authorities, socio-economic players and managers.
However, ponds are very difficult to conserve using the usual nature protection tools (nature reserve, biotope decree, etc.) due to their very small size and lack of land identity. Moreover, their number, density, difficulties in defining them, and lack of understanding of the biochemical and ecological mechanisms that determine the functioning of their ecosystems hinder the diagnosis. This is all the more the case as their basic biological richness is closely linked to the existence of connected networks of ponds, the landscape matrices in which they are inserted often being of
1 SAJALOLI, B., TEISSIER-ENSMINGER, A., 1997, Radioscopie des mares, Collection Environnement, Paris, L'Harmattan, 288 p.
SAJALOLI, B., DUTILLEUL, C., 2001, Les mares, des potentialités environnementales à revaloriser, Rapport final, PNRZH « Les mares, des potentialités environnementales à revaloriser », Centre de Biogéographie-Écologie de l’École Normale Supérieure Lettres Sciences Humaines, UMR 8505 CNRS - ENS LSH, 142 p.
2 OERTLI B., Frossard P.-A., 2013, Mares et étangs, écologie, gestion, aménagement et valorisation. Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes, Coll. Gérer l’environnement.
SAJALOLI B., LIMOGES O., DUTILLEUL C., THULIE A., 2 000, Contribution des mares à la qualité biologique et sociale des territoires. Exemples dans le Bassin Parisien, pp. 215-234, in WICHEREK S. (2000) L’eau de la cellule au paysage, éd. ELSEVIER, 424 p.
3 SAJALOLI B., 2005, Typologie patrimoniale des mares, pp. 47-54 in Cahier Thématique du PNRZH (2005), Caractérisation des zones humides, vol. 2, éd. du ministère de l’Écologie et du Développement durable, 72 p.
4 AROUA N., 2016, Comment se pose la question de l’eau en milieu urbain aujourd’hui ? Revue francophone du développement durable, n° 8
CEREGHINO R., BOIX D., CAUCHI H.-M., MARTENS K., OERTLI B., 2013, “The ecological role of ponds in a changing world”, Hydrobologia,
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limited natural interest (Clauzel, 2020, 2021; Collectif, 1997) 5. Furthermore, the development of a heritage argument based on the historical and memorial interest of these small water features, on the territorial amenities that motivate their conservation, is difficult or even ignored (Sajaloli, 2006, 2009, 2020) 6. Finally, combining naturalist and socio-cultural approaches, particularly through the multiple use of these small bodies of water, remains largely unthought of.
The conference "Ponds, a constructed natural heritage, a neglected cultural heritage. Integrating the geohistorical and territorial dimensions in the contemporary management of ponds" starts from the observation that naturalist issues have difficulty in combining with socio-economic and cultural issues: the Mare heritage (the "patrimare"?) is thus split into two, sometimes antagonistic, parts. On the one hand, naturalists tend to remove ponds from the territories they enrich by limiting access and uses in the name of protecting rare and protected species; on the other hand, local authorities and private or public space managers underestimate the biological richness of ponds and wish at least to associate their conservation with general public uses (leisure or other). The objective of the conference is therefore, by mobilising the geohistory of these small wetlands, but also the cultural and psychological dimensions, the legal and territorial dimensions, to see in what way ponds are likely to be part of a heritage approach combining the enhancement of natural and historical wealth, protection of the environment and multiple collective uses of nature.
Its ambition is also to confront scientific views with the concerns and operations of managers of these small water bodies in order to increase the operationality of the event. Scientists from the life sciences and the human and legal sciences, natural environment managers and land managers (local authorities, private owners, etc.) will therefore be invited to communicate and exchange views in round tables. The conference, through a "testimonial" session, the outlines of which have yet to be defined (poster, round table, readings, etc.), will also be open to private individuals, members of the SNPN in particular (but not exclusively), who manage and protect ponds in a discreet manner, and who will have the opportunity to tell the story of their small water body. Presentations from outside metropolitan France will also be welcome, whether from the ultra-marine, other European countries, North America, the Mediterranean basin, Africa or Asia (...) as long as they present concrete and original cases of coexistence between socio-economic uses and consolidation of biodiversity. We are thinking, for example, of the oases of southern Algeria where, after treatment in water treatment plants, the purified water feeds ponds with remarkable fauna and flora. We are also thinking of the intra-urban ponds in Diourbel (Senegal) where the presence of water at the end of the dry season provides a powerful amenity and constitutes an element in the fight against the urban heat island linked to climate change. Similarly, the tank ponds of southern India are original examples where agricultural uses, bird sanctuaries, leisure uses, and even sacred functions in peri-urban environments are combined. We also think of the decantation-filtration basins on motorways or in the Ile-de-France agglomerations, which serve as a stopover for migratory birds such as the Shelduck.
From a geohistorical perspective, it is also a question of identifying the trajectories of ponds and explaining the reasons for their maintenance or disappearance. Are they indicators of the productivist modernity of rural areas? If they have been maintained, do they characterise the
5 CLAUZEL C., 2021, Réseaux écologiques et connectivité du paysage, Mémoire d’Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, Ladyss, université de Paris, 185 p., https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03480647/file/Volume1_HDR_Clauzel.pdf
CLAUZEL C., 2020, Rapport du projet TRAMARE (2019-2022), Ladyss, université de Paris, 34 p., https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03113687/document
COLLECTIF, 1997, « Spécial Mares », Le Courrier de la nature, SNPN, n° 161, 52 p.
6 SAJALOLI B., 2009, « Lavoirs, laveuses et lavandières », Zones Humides Infos, n° 63, p. 13-14
SAJALOLI B., 2009, « Petit patrimoine de l’eau et réhabilitation des zones humides », Zones Humides Infos, n° 63, p. 2-5
SAJALOLI B., 2006, « Mares au diable et marais ensorcelés », Zones Humides Infos, n° 54, p 15-16.
SAJALOLI B., 2020, La mare. Perle d’eau. OEil de terre, p. 517-542, in VOISIN Patrick (dir) Réinventer la brachylogie, entre dialectique, rhétorique et poétique, Paris, Garnier, collection Rencontres, 628 p.
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remote countryside that has been left out of the industrial agriculture? In cities, how do they fit into urban planning documents and what arguments have prevented them from being filled in? What new environmental functions are they developing? In both cases, what part does local history, the intimate relationship that societies have with water, play in the disparity of the trajectories observed? Finally, at a time when the civil liability of elected officials is being engaged, what does environmental law and civil law say about public safety? Finally, how can the cohabitation between the wild and the inhabited be articulated, from the shrill song of frogs during reproduction to the intolerance of certain neo-rural people to noise?
