Anti Personnel (AP) Landmines pose a serious threat to environment, livelihood and process of sustainable development, affecting not only present but also future generations. They prejudice economic development by disrupting the biosphere's life support systems and diminishing the capacity of the environment to supply the raw materials and natural resources. Mines deny access to natural resources, promote the rapid and unsustainable exploitation of marginal and ecologically fragile environments, deplete biological diversity by destroying flora and fauna, contaminate the surrounding soil and water with highly toxic substances, and destroy the ecosystem itself by disrupting soil and water processes. Estimates suggest that over 110 million landmines are still in place. AP landmines were a constant threat even to the faction who laid them. Nobody kept full records of the mines laid and it is almost impossible to do so for the mines dropped from aircraft. Use of landmines constitutes an ecological, economic, and social problem. In poor countries landmines have denied land to farmers, pastoral communities and returning refugees and have covered large tracts of the earth's surface with non-biodegradable and toxic garbage. Mines are a major contributor to economic and social impoverishment. The use of land mines results in loss of productivity of farmlands, removal of vast tracts of arable land from safe use for decades, and disruption of transportation and agricultural markets."Landmines - Challenges to Humanity and Environment" 20 April 2003 organized by Indian Institute of Peace, Disarmament and Environmental Protection, Nagpur, India and Global Green Peace, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India
