The Department of Geosciences of the University of Fribourg and the Platform Geosciences of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) cordially invite you to participate in the 24^th Swiss Geoscience Meeting to be held 20-21 November 2026 in Fribourg, Switzerland.

The Swiss Geoscience Meetings provide an ideal environment to foster informal contacts and discussion among scientists and practitioners.

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Preliminary Programme

More information will be available on the Swiss Geoscience Meeting website soon.

Friday 20 November

Workshop: In the morning, the annual GEODES x SGM workshop will be held. Topic to be announced soon: https://geodeswitzerland.ch

Plenary Session: In the afternoon, different keynote speakers will address ‘Risks’ and ‘Resources’ in two geoscience discussion rounds that make up this year’s Plenary Session.

Saturday 21 November

34 scientific symposia will cover the diverse spectrum of current research in geosciences, encompassing the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the biosphere, the atmosphere, and the anthroposphere.

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Call for Abstracts

The 24th Swiss Geoscience Meeting welcomes abstracts for talks and posters pertaining to all aspects of geosciences. Abstracts will be categorised following the indications given by the authors in the abstract submission form. The conveners of each session will organise oral and/or poster presentations depending on the number of submissions and their relevance.

Please consider submitting an abstract to the following MRI co-convened session:

26. Mountain Commons: Historical development, transformations and new forms of Commons in Mountain Regions

Conveners: Emmanuel Reynard, Jeanne Fournier, Iago Otero, Carolina Adler, Glenn Hunt, Elisa Frank

Interdisciplinary Centre for Mountain Research, University of Lausanne
Mountain Research Initiative
Forum Landscape, Alps, Parks, Swiss Academy of Sciences

Mountain regions are facing many challenges related to their environmental and sociopolitical contexts (reduced agricultural production, natural hazards, difficulty of access, peripherization, etc.). Collective action and commons are ways to cope with these challenges. Historically, numerous common institutions have developed and evolved in many mountain areas to collectively manage natural resources (pastures, water, forests) or infrastructures (irrigation channels, mills, ovens, natural hazard protection structures).

During the 20th century, most of these commons have changed and have even disappeared for various reasons. Some have remained relatively stable. Others have been integrated into larger, more complex systems of resource management (e.g., with the development of hydropower schemes in mountain catchments) or have been combined with public institutions for the management of services or activities (e.g., forest management). Moreover, the functions of several of these historical commons have expanded (e.g., agricultural commons [alpine pastures, irrigation channels] that are now also tourist spaces or infrastructure). Most historical commons are now to be considered as transformed commons. In parallel, new forms of mountain commons have emerged and are structured around various types of resources. Examples of new mountain commons include participatory cafés, grocery stores, mountain heritage restoration associations or participatory management bodies for mountain huts.

We invite scientists from geosciences and other disciplines to an interdisciplinary exchange around the mountain commons and their multiple characteristics and management challenges in the 21st century. Conceptual contributions as well as case studies from the Alps and other mountain regions on historical commons, transformed commons, new commons, management and internal governance challenges, institutional issues and commoning dynamics are particularly welcome.

Abstract submission deadline for all sessions is 28 August 2026

Full details of all sessions can be found on the 24th Swiss Geoscience Meeting website.

For technical questions related to abstract submission, please contact Caroline Reymond & Pierre Dèzes.

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^{Cover image: Aescher-Wildkirchli guesthouse tucked into the side of a mountain in the Appenzell district of Switzerland. Image credit: Patrick Robert Doyle.}