Stéphane De Greef

Part-time tour guide Stéphane De Greef is a full-time Indiana Jones whose knowledge of map making, landmines, and forest biology helped archeologists rediscover an ancient city in the Cambodian jungle.

Stéphane De Greef is a Belgium-born environmental engineer who has been living in Southeast Asia for a decade. Stéphane arrived in Cambodia in 2002 to map minefields and assist with demining. He developed surveillance systems to locate and assist mine casualties in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Nepal and Western Sahara.
 
A nature lover from his earliest days, Stéphane has been involved in mapping unchartered areas in Cambodia's national parks, taking part in biodiversity surveys and investigating illegal logging. He is an avid macrophotographer, documenting all the bugs he comes across, many of them undescribed species.
 
In 2012, his knowledge of cartography, landmines, and forest biology played a key role in the discovery and exploration of the ancient royal capital of Mahendraparvata, the cradle of the Khmer Empire. Equipped with a machete, GPS and maps he designed using airborne laser technology, he spent six months looking for evidence of an ancient civilisation, finding dozens of millennium-old temples swallowed by the jungle.
 
It is the mixture of ancient history, undescribed fauna and unchartered areas that keeps Stéphane in Cambodia, who is passionate about exploring the unknown. He is currently mapping all Angkorian sites of Cambodia, conducting extensive surveys of the country's invertebrate species and developing nature-based tourism activities to share his knowledge of Cambodia's wilderness and rich cultural heritage.