Dear all,

Seasonal greetings. I am pleased to share with you our quarterly newsletter. I hope there is something for everyone in this issue which covers a wide range of topics from the creative arts to rewilding and forestry.

I am sure many of you are now aware that Michael Dower died recently. Whilst probably better known to our more senior membership, Michael will be remembered for his influential role as the CEO for Peak District and then Director General of the Countryside Commission. He was an active attendee at Europarc Conferences in the late 1980s and 1990s. We pass on our condolences and best wishes to all who knew him, our protected landscapes family is lesser for his passing, but wiser from his wisdom.

Finally, we are pleased to announce that we are in the process of setting up our Advisory Board which will include a mix of protected landscape professionals and academics. Hopefully by our next issue I will be able to introduce you to our Chair and board members. They will be helping us shape our direction of travel to ensure we stay as relevant as we can to the future of our protected landscapes. 

Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Lois Mansfield, Director of CNPPA

In this issue:

• Publication  - The New Natural History of Madagascar
• PhD profile - digital innovation to improve the visitor experience in Cumbria
  
• Publication - Routledge Handbook of Rewilding
• Cumbria People and Nature Network launched
• Watershed: multi-media arts-research in the Ullswater catchment
  
• Journal publications - forestry and woodlands
• Funding obtained - analysing the spatial dynamics of tourism in Cumbria
• Negotiating a Cultural Landscape – public talk series for 2022-2023
• Local business event - sustainable development goals
• Moss of Many Layers project - film and map
• New book forthcoming - The Wolf: Culture, Nature, Heritage
  
• Event report - A 21st Century 'People's Charter' for Landscape, Nature and Access
• News from partners - Lake District National Park Partnership Chair vacancy
  
• Reminders - dates for  2023 

Reviews of The New Natural History of Madagascar:

“The most thorough and comprehensive account of the natural history of Madagascar yet, and it will set the standard for many years to come.” —BBC Wildlife.

“For those who are serious about getting to know this fascinating island, there is no better resource… It is the closest thing to a comprehensive natural history of the region ever produced.” —Tim Flannery, Nature.

“A scientific milestone and by far the largest synthesis of tropical biology research ever.” —Science.

Delia is applying the Five Factor Model of personality to better understand visitor behaviour in Cumbria. Her recent pilot study identified a statistically significant relationship between personality dimensions and visitor activities in Cumbria. Moreover, Delia found no statistically significant difference in visitor activities across socio-demographic factors, including gender, nationality, or different levels of education

Delia aims to apply personality trait data to the development of algorithms and innovative digital platforms for Cumbria Tourism. Potentially, these could enable continuous market analysis for member businesses in the tourism sector, whilst improving personalisation of marketing and visitor services.

If you have recently visited Cumbria for tourism and are happy to share your views, please access Delia's questionnaire here.

The editors spent 3 years bringing together contributors from a vast array of different disciplines and perspectives to publish this volume which provides a focus for ongoing development of the concept of rewilding, challenging conservation practice and encouraging the potential to transform landscapes and human-nature relationships.

This volume forms part of the ongoing work of the IUCN Commission for Ecosystem Management’s Rewilding Thematic Group who are currently also calling for submissions to a Rewilding in Practice collection in Frontiers in Conservation Science.

Photo: Editors (left to right) Sally Hawkins, Rene Beyers, Steve Carver and Ian Convery on a visit to the Natural Capital Laboratory in Scotland, a project featured in the book.

The project will trial innovative methods of art research and engagement using diverse media and community participation to ensure relevance and learning in a place-based context (social, geographical, cultural, ecological). A minimum of two conversational events will take place; artists will also meet local residents individually and extend engagement through ‘watershed walks’. Watershed will provide a case study for the Cumbria People and Nature Network (CPNN).

We are celebrating several colleagues recently having new publications printed in international, peer-reviewed journals.

Mark Tomlinson, Senior Lecturer in Forestry, was one of the authors on a paper titled: ‘Application of Climate-smart Forestry – forest manager response to the relevance of European definition and indicators’, which was published in the journal ‘Trees Forests and People’.

Dr Claire Holt, Professor Ian Convery and Professor Lois Mansfield were among the authors of a paper entitled ‘Impacts of woodland planting on nature-based recreational tourism in upland England – A case study’, which was published in the journal ‘Landscape and Urban Planning’.

The funding supports the first phase of the research that will draw together data from multiple sources including the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, Cumbria Tourism, The Lake District National Park and Friends of the Lake District with a view to classifying ‘hot spots’ and ‘cold spots’ created by visitor numbers, demand and seasonality.  

The outcomes of the research will be presented to industry in April 2023 and then at a European Conference in June 2023. 

Negotiating a Cultural Landscape, our free series of monthly public talks at the University of Cumbria's Ambleside campus, is now in its fourth year.

The first event of 2022-2023 took place on 7th November and was delivered in collaboration with our partners at The Armitt. Our guest speaker was Fiona Edmonds, Professor in Regional History at Lancaster University and Director of the Regional Heritage Centre. Fiona gave a talk on ‘Envisaging Landscapes and Naming Places: the Ordnance Survey Name Books and the Lake District’.

Our December talk was given by Robert Williams, Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cumbria, who spoke to us about ‘The British Folk Horror Revival and the Pastoral Otherly’.

Our next event will take place on Tuesday 7th February at 6.30pm. Dr Elizabeth Fisher from Northumbria University will be giving a talk on ‘Helen Sutherland and her “magic circle of friends” at Cockley Moor, 1939-65’.

If you would like to join a mailing list to receive updates about Cultural Landscape events at the University of Cumbria, please email Dr Penny Bradshaw. Alternatively, you can follow @CumbriaEnglish on Twitter. 

Dr David F. Murphy is Associate Professor of Sustainability & Collaborative Leadership at the University of Cumbria and contributes to our Rural and Visitor Economy research theme. Dr Murphy recently hosted a knowledge exchange event as part of SDGAction, an action research project in north Lancashire and south Cumbria.  The project is exploring how local business, voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors and the wider community can contribute to reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Forty people attended a knowledge exchange event in Lancaster with the purpose of enhancing local understanding of how communities can work together to make change happen and build local partnerships for sustainability.  

Key outcomes from the event were to look at capabilities for local collaboration with Lancaster City Council’s Community Connectors Team and to identify how to empower small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve the SDGs via networks of the Lancaster Ethical Small Traders Association and SDG Changemakers. 

CNPPA’s creative associates, PLACE Collective, have recently presented two outputs from the Moss of Many Layers arts-science-community and research project which took place this year.

Juliet Klottrup’s film: Moss of Many Layers, tells the story of Bolton Fell Moss, a huge peat bog in Cumbria that is undergoing restoration. The film now also features in the COP26 Virtual Peat Pavillion, where visitors can find out more about peat, mires, mosses and bogs across the world.

Helen Cann’s illustrated map of Bolton Fell Moss represents not only the history of the moss, but also its ongoing upkeep and hoped-for future.

Moss of Many Layers was led by University of Cumbria, PLACE Collective and the landowners, Natural England, in collaboration with members of the local community. It was funded by the National Environment Research Council (NERC) as part of the programme ‘Arts based public engagement with climate change.

Image: Illustrated map of Bolton Fell Moss by Helen Cann. 

A book to be published in 2023 will include research by colleagues working in the field of Cultural Landscapes on cultural representations of the wolf. The Wolf: Culture, Nature, Heritage (forthcoming) is a transdisciplinary collection of essays edited by Professor Ian Convery (University of Cumbria) et al which will offer contemporary perspectives on the contested, ambiguous, yet central role held by the wolf in human culture and heritage. It will focus predominantly on ‘the wolf of human imagination’ and how this relates to human notions of wilderness and landscape futures.

The following three chapters of the book have been written by colleagues whose work relates to the area of Cultural Landscapes:

Dr Penny Bradshaw: ‘Defined “as much by their absence as their iconography”: Reimagining Wolves in Cumbria in Sarah Hall’s The Wolf Border’

Dr Jamie McPhie: ‘Nazi Werewolves from Outer Space: Posthuman-wolf multiplicities and their (mis) appropriations’

Professor Robert Williams: ‘Ulfr and Gris: Spectral Animal Companions of the Atomic Priest’

The Wolf: Culture, Nature, Heritage will be published by Boydell and Brewer in 2023.

CNPPA supported Campaign for National Parks in presenting a lively panel discussion webinar on 31st October 2022 titled 'A 21st Century 'People's Charter' for Landscape, Nature and Access'.

The discussion explored demand for new legislation to develop the statutory purposes of national landscapes to meet the urgent needs of the 21st century.

Julia Aglionby, Professor of Practice at University of Cumbria, chaired the debate. Siôn McGeever of Defra and Simon Pickering of the Welsh Government attended in an active listening capacity. Over 150 people joined the live event and many took the opportunity to provide questions to the expert panelists.

The advert for the LDNPP Chair position is now live, at this link. 

Free photography exhibition 'Forty Farms' at Rheged, Cumbria until 4th January 2023, CNPPA is a supporting partner.

Call for case studies of 'Rewilding in Practice' by 15th January 2023 for Frontiers in Conservation Science. Two of our colleagues are on the editorial team. Please see the Rewilding in Practice webpage for full details.

Request for abstracts by 31st January 2023, on the topic 'Using the Climate-smart Communities approach to achieve resilient communities and landscapes' for the journal Land. Our Director is on the editorial team. Please see Climate Smart Communities and website for further details.

Our Vision is to be a national and international centre of excellence for transdisciplinary study and research into national parks and protected areas, that addresses complex local and global challenges, and develops innovative practices to enhance landscapes and communities.

Our External Objectives are: 

· To grow our understanding of ecological, social and economic processes and change.

· To encourage dialogue within and between all communities.

· To create a safe space for addressing the contested issues.

· To provide an inspiring programme of lectures and conferences for all.

· To work in partnership with local communities to support knowledge sharing and transformative sustainable business practices that contribute to thriving communities, biodiversity and climate action.

· To use art and literature as catalysts for conversations, critical thinking, engagement and communication.

You can join our mailing list here.