CEPAR is the home of a programme of professional training for protected area and other countryside staff which began in 1990 with the foundation of the UK Countryside Commission-sponsored Diploma in Countryside Management. In 1995 this highly successful, vocational post-experience award was extended to form the MSc Environmental Management (Protected Area Management). The format of both awards makes them available to participants from all over the UK (and elsewhere in Europe).

The Diploma is based on occasional weekend (Friday and Saturday) course meetings in London plus a residential school.

The MSc includes intensive week-long residential modules which are held in a variety of locations in the UK and Europe and which may also be taken independently as professional training.

Training is funded in part from various sources including the UK Countryside Agency, the British Council (ALIS scheme), and the Civic Education Project. CEPAR's teaching and training activities are linked with various bodies in Europe. The MSc Protected Area Management, for example, is 'twinned' with the University of Ljubljana's MSc in Natural Heritage Protection.

CEPAR is a partner together with other training institutions in Austria, Czech, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland, in a European Union-sponsored LEONARDO II consortium of training providers within the TOPAS (Training of Protected Area Staffs) project.

Interdisciplinary research degrees (MPhil/PhD) in environmental management are also offered in collaboration with the Birkbeck Schools of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Geography, Geological Sciences, Law, the School of Management and Organisational Pyschology.