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Tranquil lake in Cumbria

Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas



An international research centre for the study of national parks and protected area management.

Welcome to the Centre for National Parks & Protected Areas

We are an interdisciplinary team of academics, professors of practice, visiting & honorary fellows interested in making a difference to national parks and protected area management.

We collaborate widely with those professionals seeking to manage our special places for the benefit of all.

What we do

CNPPA operates a transdisciplinary approach, which focuses on world-class academic excellence with a global reach, the purpose of which is to inform and influence policy making, develop best practice, governance and innovation of resource use and promote knowledge transfer through high quality translational skills. It aims to attract internationally and nationally renowned academics in relevant discipline areas through conferences, fellowships, research and enterprise projects, whilst at the same time encouraging dialogue with policymakers and professional practitioners.

CNPPA Logo, CNPPA Logo

OUR VISION

An international and national centre of research excellence for the transdisciplinary study of national park and protected area management – developing sustainable natural solutions to complex global problems.

PARTNERS

Lois Mansfield by bridge house

Professor Lois Mansfield, PhD

Professor of Upland Landscapes, and Director of Ambleside Campus 

She recently became a receipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship (2019) related to place-based rural development using cultural capital in Japan. She is also research active in the area of upland agriculture a as part of the Centre for national Parks & Protected Areas.

Close up image of a hawk
Wildlife conservation
The Wildlife Conservation 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.
Ambleside lake shops
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 across the sector.
Waterfall with long exposure
Landscapes and Ecology
Researchers in this theme will explore the interplay between physical and biological systems within the context of a changing climate.
People walking in The Lake District
Human-Nature Relationships
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.
Place logo
Place
The PLACE Collective is a community of artists engaged with issues of nature, environment and rural societies. It brings artists into a wider process of research, debate and knowledge-sharing and is driven by a recognition of the critical need for us all to take more sustainable approaches.
Japanese mountain
Cultural Landscape
This theme brings together areas of research which 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 human inhabitants and their natural environment.
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