3 – 13 September 2025
Open to PhD and early career researchers (as well as professionals in relevant fields), the Alternet Summer School – organised and supported in cooperation with Biodiversa+ – creates an innovative atmosphere for considering the environmental challenges that society is currently facing, particularly those around biodiversity. Peyresq, a picturesque village in the Haute-de-Provence Alpes, provides an unparalleled setting for dynamic discussions and transdisciplinary learning.
This year’s programme is entitled: Biodiversity and society: transforming science and policy.
Biodiversity and society: transforming science and policy.
Biodiversity is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history, with serious impacts on people around the world. The Alternet summer school focuses on the challenge of biodiversity management and conservation by exploring drivers of biodiversity loss and the role of ecological knowledge and social science approaches.
We discuss socio-ecological systems approaches to understanding and enacting transformation. Multifunctional landscapes require inclusive approaches involving all stakeholders with their different interests. We will discuss how different values can be addressed to support biodiversity and social cohesion from research, practice, and policy perspectives. The lectures will be enriched by the students’ research topics, field trips, joint working groups and discussion sessions.
Themes for this year’s summer school include:
- Biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people
- Climate change, biodiversity and habitability
- Socio-ecological systems
- Systems approaches
- Stakeholder engagement
- Values and responsibility in biodiversity research
- New approaches in nature conservation
- Art, science and nature
- Invasive species and novel ecosystems
- Science, policy and society
Activities and participation
The Alternet Summer School is held annually in Peyresq, a remote mountain village in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, south-eastern France, home of the Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc Foundation. The programme of activities includes:
- Morning talks and discussion with speakers
- Afternoon group work on a co-learning project about the local social-ecological system and its possible futures
- Aperitif talks prior to dinner
- Field trips to the mountain pastures used by local shepherds / shepherdesses and the Parc National du Mercantour
- Free time in the evenings for leisure and further discussion
The summer school is open to post-graduate students and early-career professionals from environmental and social science fields with an interest in sustainability science. All participants are expected to actively contribute to all aspects of the summer school.
