Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas

An international research centre

Our Purpose

To enable and promote research and knowledge exchange relevant to national parks and protected areas, in ways that facilitate change by shaping policy, practice and perceptions.

Our Research Themes

Cultural Landscapes

This theme brings together areas of research that engage with the 'combined works of nature and humankind' (UNESCO) and which explore interpretations of, and creative responses to, the complex and dynamic relationship between humans and nature.

Human Nature Relations

The engagement of people with nature produces a landscape. Personal, social, economic and political actions interact with natural processes, habitats and species in dynamic relations.

Rural and Visitor Economy

The rural and visitor economy theme adopts a transformational business philosophy that encourages the development of innovative thinking and contemporary approaches to planning and management that are linked to supporting a broad range of resources.

Conservation and Ecology

The Conservation and Ecology group take a transdisciplinary action-orientated approach, drawing on natural and social sciences, to conduct research with the aim of protecting species, their habitats and ecosystems from biodiversity loss.

Meet the Team

Dr Helen Manns
Interim Director of CNPPA and Director of Institute of Science & Environment.
Dr Angela Anthonisz
Research Theme Lead: Rural & Visitor Economy
Dr Penny Bradshaw
Research Theme Lead: Cultural Landscapes
Dr Angus I. Carpenter
Research Theme Lead: Conservation & Ecology
Professor Julia Aglionby
Professor of Practice
Tania Lemmey
CNPPA Development Officer

Our Creative Associates

The PLACE Collective is a community of artists engaged with issues of landscape and environmental change, primarily in rural regions. It brings artists into a wider process of research, debate and knowledge-sharing, working both within and outside academia.

Founders: Harriet Fraser and Rob Fraser, Visiting Research Fellows.

The PLACE Collective

Latest News & Events

Environmental Land Management Short Courses in Cumbria - 2024

University of Cumbria’s Institute of Science and Environment recently launched a set of new part-time short courses for farmers, land managers and advisors, in topics relating to environmental land management in the uplands. 'Farm Business Opportunities' was fully subscribed and is being delivered across October-November 2024.

In 2024 we’ll be delivering ‘Mapping Environmental Assets’ in partnership with Land App, and ‘Upland Farming for Net Zero’ in partnership with Farm Carbon Toolkit, both supported by the Foundation for Common Land and Our Upland Commons Project.

Please let us know via this link if you’d like to be notified when applications open for these courses in Cumbria.

Further information about the courses can be found here.

CNPPA Newsletters

COP26 Joint Statement

Centre for National Parks & Protected Areas (CNPPA) became a founding signatory to the Protected and Conserved Areas Joint Statement (PCAJS) at COP26 in Glasgow.

This is an international statement signed by a number of international national park organisations, government departments, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature's World Commission for Protected Areas (IUCN-WCPA).

The signing took place in the UK Pavilion at COP26 Friday 5^th November 2021. You can watch the recording on YouTube here

Read the PCAJS Report.

Past Events

Literary Walking Tour of Carlisle | Launch Event | 27 October 2023

A Literary Walking Tour of Carlisle is the third literary guidebook to be written by the University of Cumbria’s Associate Professor of English Literature, Dr Penny Bradshaw. Penny is theme lead for Cultural Landscapes within the University’s Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas and her main area of research expertise relates to literary representations of place. In her most recent walking guidebook, the rich literary heritage of the ancient city of Carlisle is celebrated.

A Literary Walking Tour of Carlisle details the city’s long history of literary associations through a half-day walk, accompanied by words from the many celebrated poets and novelists who visited the town, including the Wordsworths, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, Hugh Walpole, and Melvyn Bragg.

Free lecture | A Right to See the Stars: Bringing Outdoor Education to All the People | 25 January 2023, London

Prof Chris Loynes asks: Outdoor Education - what can it offer urban communities, and how to make it accessible and inclusive?

Public lecture recording - view here on YouTube.

Cultural Landscapes Talk on Place Names - 7 November 2022, Ambleside

Envisaging landscapes and naming places: the Ordnance Survey name books and the Lake District

Speaker: Professor Fiona Edmonds, Lancaster University

This talk was hosted at University of Cumbria's Ambleside campus, brought to you by the Centre for National Parks & Protected Areas with The Armitt Library & Museum Centre.

A 21st Century ‘People’s Charter’ for Nature, Access & Landscape: Panel Discussion - 31 October 2022

This online panel debate, in partnership with the Campaign for National Parks, will explored powers and legislation required for protected landscapes to address the overlapping crises of health, nature and climate.

The discussion was chaired by Julia Aglionby, Professor of Practice at University of Cumbria. Confirmed panelists include Rose O’Neill, Chief Executive of Campaign for National Parks, Sarah Mukherjee MBE, CEO of IEMA, and Tompion Platt, Director of Operations and Advocacy for the Ramblers.

Further information: cnp.org.uk/event

Landscapes for Nature Recovery Conference - March/April 2022

An evening webinar presenting the context for nature recovery in protected landscapes
An online conference exploring practicalities of nature recovery

These events were hosted by CNPPA in partnership with the Lake District National Park Partnership, RSPB and Nature North.

View the Landscapes for Nature Recovery Conference Programme, 7 April 2022.

View recordings of the main sessions.

National Landscapes Partnership Panel Discussion - February 2022

This event was hosted by CNPPA in partnership with the Campaign for National Parks and explored Defra’s proposed National Landscapes Partnership.

A recording is available on our YouTube channel here.

What is Natural Beauty? Symposium - December 2021

This online event was hosted by CNPPA and run by the PLACE Collective with the Wye Valley AONB Partnership and the Lake District National Park Authority.

The symposium brought together strands from debates about the practicalities and economics of landscape management, within the context of what is considered beautiful and draws people into Protected Landscapes.