Since 03/2019
PostDoc research in the BMBF-funded project NamTip (Understanding and Managing Desertification Tipping Points in Dryland Social-Ecological Systems – A Namibian Perspective). Subproject 3: Social and Cultural Implications of Desertification Tipping Points in the Namibian East Commnal Rangelands.

9/2017 - 05/2018
Research fellow in the DFG-funded LINGS project (Local Institutions in Globalized Societies) and in the Range Ecology and Range Management Group at the University of Cologne.

09/2016 - 8/2017
Coordinator of the Master’s program “Culture and Environment in Africa”, Department of Social & Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne.

05/2010 - 05/2016
Research fellow in the DFG-funded LINGS project (Local Institutions in Globalized Societies) at the University of Cologne.

05/2010-11/2015
PhD, Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Cologne. Dissertation’s title: "The Pump Keeps on Running: On the Emergence of Water Management Institutions Between State Decentralization and Local Practices in Northern Kunene".

03/2004 - 04/2010
Master’s studies in Social & Cultural Anthropology (major subject), Sociology and Latin-American Studies (subsidiary subjects). Title of thesis: "Institutions and Conflict. An Ethnographic Study of Communal Water Management in North-West Namibia".

• Community-based natural resource management
• Political Ecology
• Pastoralism
• Conservation
• Environmental restoration
• Desertification and bush encroachment
• Water and rangeland management
• Namibia

Diego Menestrey investigates the causes and consequences of desertification tipping points (DTP) in the communal areas of eastern Namibia from an anthropological and interdisciplinary perspective. His work includes research on the socio-historical and structural factors shaping local social-ecological change and rangeland degradation, the socio-economic impacts of these changes, and local environmental perceptions and coping strategies related to DTP and their management.

Teilprojekt "Soziale und kulturelle Implikationen""

Funding: BMBF
Duration: 2023-2025