FSD teams survey UXO-impacted villages in remote western Mindanao, facilitate the removal and destruction of explosive hazards, provide technical support to the local authorities and provide explosive ordnance risk education to local communities. Since 1968, Central and South-western Mindanao has been the scene of fighting between Muslim independence activists and the Philippines government, with intermittent periods of peace and conflict.
Each period of conflict leaves behind a legacy of unexploded or abandoned explosive hazards, posing risks to civilians, displaced people and returnees. In 2005, the Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and the Committee for the Cessation of Hostilities (CCH) asked FSD to provide technical Mine Action assistance in support of the Peace Process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). FSD was encouraged to develop a "joint" survey and clearance proposal in Muslim Mindanao working with staff from both sides of theconflict. FSD also provided risk education to independent international ceasefire monitors.