Centre for European Protected Area Research (CEPAR)

London University's Centre for Protected Area Research (CEPAR) was established at Birkbeck in 1998 to integrate a range of research, consultancy and training activities in countryside and  protected area policy and management.

A central interest of CEPAR is to assess and promote the role of protected areas in the delivery of sustainability in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.  CEPAR has strong links with UK statutory conservation organisations (such as Natural England) and with the voluntary sector (including the National Trust, the Wildlife Trust Partnership, and the RSPB), and with international and European bodies (such as IUCN and Europarc), and with national agencies particularly in south-east and central Europe. Parts of the Birkbeck Masters' programme in protected area management have been delivered in association with the University of Ljubljana.

CEPAR's core staff specialise in management planning, sustainable tourism, education and interpretation, environmental policy and politics, agri-environmental policy, and sustainable rural development, with particular reference to the operation of European protected areas.

Research and consultancy

Examples:

• Evaluation of and guidance for the Heritage Lottery Fund's Landscape Partnerships programme.

• Preparation of Best Practice guidelines for English protected landscapes for Natural England.

• Study of Solcava (Slovenia) - 75 years after Dudley Stamp

• Evaluation of the government's Sustainable Development Fund for National Parks, now rolled out to Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

• Management Planning guidance for UK Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty following the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.

• 'Rural Proofing' UK government policy on lifelong learning in rural areas for Defra.

• Effects of acidification and air pollution on the British flora and habitats for plant life - the Wild Plant Conservation charity.

• Development of best practice guidelines for UK site management planning for the Countryside Commission (now Countryside Agency).

• Effects of acidification on European protected areas for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF International).

• Societal transition and environmental issues in central and eastern Europe.

• An analysis of political transition and protected areas in east-central and south-eastern Europe (Czech Republic and Slovenia).

• The impact of war on the environment and protected areas in the Yugoslav successor states.

• Management planning training for the National Trust.

Projects have been supported by Natural England (and previously by the UK Countryside Commission/ Countryside Agency and English Nature), by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the British Council, the Soddy Trust, the National Trust, the European Union, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, country government departments (e.g. Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Czech Republic, Ministry of the Environment in Serbia, Ministry of Science and Technology in Slovenia) and a wide range of academic bodies and non-governmental organisations.

Core staff

Frances Burch, BSc (Lond), PhD (Lond)  - Conservation Science

Kezia Barker, MA (Edinburgh), MSc (Lond), PhD (Lond) - Countryside Policy

Richard Clarke, BSc (Wales), MTech (Brunel), FLS  - Environmental Governance

Lorna Bowden, BSc (Lond), PhD (Lond)  Programme Manager

Amanda Inniss   Executive Officer

Associate staff

Education and training

Selected publications 1998 - 2008

Selected publications 2008 onwards

Protected area (for staff and students)

Contact

Web : www.bbk.ac.uk/ce/research/cepar
Email : cepar@cepar.bbk.ac.uk