Short Biography

01/2026 bis heute: Principal Investigator of DFG-funded Project "The ‚Encroaching Bush‘: Political Ecology, Local Ecological Knowledge and the ‘New Commons’ in Namibia’s Communal Areas."

10/2023 till 12/2025: Principal Investigator in the NamTip consortium (A Namibian perspective on
Namibian perspective on desertification tipping points in the context of climate climate change/BMBF-funded project)

03/2019 till 02/2023: PostDoc researcher in the NamTip Project (Understanding and Managing Desertification Tipping Points in Dryland Social-Ecological Systems – A Namibian Perspective/ BMBF-funded project)

09/2017 till 05/2017: Research fellow in the DFG-fundedn LINGS (Local Institutions in Globalized Societies) project and in the Range Ecology and Range Management Group at the University of Cologne

09/2016 till 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 till 05/2016: Research fellow in the DFG-funded LINGS Project (Local Institutions in Globalized Societies) at the Department of Social & Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne.

Doctorate (Defensio) on the 5.11.2015. Titel of the Dissertation: "The Pump Keeps on Running: On the Emergence of Water Management Institutions Between State Decentralization and Local Practices in Northern Kunene".

03/2004 till 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".

Academic Membershipds/Awards

Anthropology Southern Africa (Asna); Global South Studies Center (GSSC)

Hamburg's student's price in Social & Cultural Anthropology 2010.

Thematic Interests and Regional Focus

Human-Environment Relations, Political Ecology, Pastoralism, Community-Based Natural Resource Management, Social-Ecological Tipping Points, Qualitative and Quantitative Methods.

Southern Africa.

Current Research Projects and Grants

Courses and Seminars

SuSe 2017: Guerrillas, Paras, Narcos - an approach to an understanding of the armed conflict and violence in Colombia

SuSe 2017: Basic Concepts of Research in Hazard, Vulnerability, and Risk Managment

WiSe 2016/2017: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Social Anthropology

WiSe 2016/2017: Theoretical Approaches to Human-Environment Relations – An introduction

SuSe 2016: Anthropological Perspectives on the Caribbean

SuSe 2014: Governing the Commons: Theories and Concepts Underlying Community Based Natural Resource Management

Guest lectures

March 2022: Local perceptions of desertification tipping points in Namibia’s drylands: a case study (Namibia University of Science and Technology)

Sept 2021: When design principles do not apply: a case study on communal water management in the northern Kunene Region (Namibia University of Science and Technology)

April 2021: Understanding desertification at the community level in Namibia’s eastern communal rangelands: a comparative study integrating social and ecological insights (Namibia University of Science and Technology)

September 2021: When design principles do not apply: a case study on communal water management in the northern Kunene Region (Namibia University of Science and Technology)

March 2022: Local perceptions of desertification tipping points in Okakarara constituency (Namibia University of Science and Technology)

Publications

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. (2026) “Social tipping points” in a dryland pastoral system in Namibia. Pastoralism 16:15600. 

Menestrey Schwieger, D. A. (2025). Addressing rangeland degradation in Namibia’s communal areas. Human Organization, 1–14.

Menestrey Schwieger, D. A., F. Munyebvu – Chambara, N. Hamunyela, K. Tielbörger, W. C. Nesongano, M. C. Bilton, M. Bollig, and A. Linstädter. 2025. “Understanding Rangeland Desertification at the Village Level: A Comparative Study with a Social-Ecological Systems Perspective in Namibia.” Human Ecology 53: 53-72.

Di Baldassarre, G., Piemontese, L., Terzi, S., Menestrey Schwieger, D. A., Castelli, G., Bresci, E. (2024). Over-reliance on water infrastructure can hinder climate resilience in pastoral drylands. Nature Climate Change, 14(3), 267-274.

Heita, H. T. N., Dressler, G., Menestrey Schwieger, D. A., Mbidzo, M. (2024). Pastoralists’ perceptions on the future of cattle farming amidst rangeland degradation: A case study from Namibia's semiarid communal areas. Rangelands, 46(1), 1-12.

Brinkmann, K., Menestrey Schwieger, D. A., Grieger, L., Heshmati, S. & Rauchecker, M. (2023). How and why do rangeland changes and their underlying drivers differ across Namibia’s two major land-tenure systems? The Rangeland Journal, 45(3), 123-139

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A., (2023). Overcoming Namibia’s worst drought in the last 40 years: Ethnographic insights from Okakarara constituency. Journal of Namibian Studies, 33, 31-56.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A., Dimba Kiaka, R., Schnegg, M., 2022. Water values and moral economic practices in Kunene, Namibia. Water Alternatives, 15(3): 614-630.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2022. Exploring pastoralists’ perceptions of desertification tipping points in Namibia’s communal drylands: An ethnographic case study from Okakarara constituency. Pastoralism, 12,3.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2020. When Design Principles Do Not Apply: The Role of Individual Commitment and “Voluntarism” in Maintaining Communal Water Supply in Northern Kunene, Namibia. Human Organization, 79(3): 216-225.

Bollig, M., Schnegg, M., Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2020. Ethnographic Upscaling: Exploring and Testing Hypotheses Drawn from In-depth Ethnographic Findings in Spatially Continuous Cases. Field Methods, 32(4):346-364.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A., Mbidzo, M. 2020. Socio-historical and structural factors linked to land degradation and desertification in Namibia's former Herero 'homelands', Journal of Arid Environments, 178:104151.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2019. Negotiating Water on Unequal Terms: Cattle Loans, Dependencies and Power in Communal Water Management in Northwest Namibia. Nomadic Peoples, 23(2):241-260.

Menestrey Schwieger; D.A. 2017. The Pump Keeps on Running: On the Emergence of Water Management Institutions Between State Decentralization and Local Practices in Northern Kunene. Lit Verlag: Münster.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2015. An Ethnographic Analysis of the Role of Power in Institutional Arrangements: Borehole Cost Recovery Within a Pastoral Community in North-Western Namibia. Environmental Policy and Governance, 25, 258–269.

Bollig, M., & Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2014. Fragmentation, Cooperation and Power: Institutional Dynamics in Natural Resource Governance in North-Western Namibia. Human ecology, 42, 167-181.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2012. Institutions and Conflict: An Ethnographic Study of Communal Water Management in North-West Namibia. Köln: Kölner Ethnologische Beiträge.

Menestrey Schwieger, D.A. 2010. Institutions and Conflict: Communal Water Management in North-West Namibia. MICROCON Research Working Paper 34. Brighton: MICROCON.