Career
In Germany he is considered as one of the rare German experts for Mediterranean ecosystem and fire ecology. Furthermore, he is an expert of the geography of Francophone (African French geography) and Lusophone Africa and the Azores. In April 2015 Neff wrote in his blog, that in Germany he is considered to be one of the rare specialists of the regional geography of Tunisia, and this since 2005, year in which he began to work in Tunisia.
In January 2011 during the Tunisian Revolution Neff told in a blogpost, that the Tunisian society was the only society in the Arab world and Africa which could currently successful construct a free society and parliamentarian democracy.
He based that statement on the fact, that Tunisia has a large middle class. Neff was one of the rare German scientists evoquing the genocide in Darfur at the beginning of the civil war in Darfur.