Ideas worth spreading

The awful logic of land mines -- and an app that helps people avoid them

1,030,322 views | Carlos Bautista • TED Residency

Fifty years of armed conflict in Colombia has left the countryside riddled with land mines that maim and kill innocent people who happen across them. To help keep communities safe from harm, TED Resident Carlos Bautista is developing an app to track land mines -- and direct travelers away from them. Learn more about how this potentially life-saving tool could promote peace in countries plagued by land mines once conflicts end.

Fifty years of armed conflict in Colombia has left the countryside riddled with land mines that maim and kill innocent people who happen across them. To help keep communities safe from harm, TED Resident Carlos Bautista is developing an app to track land mines -- and direct travelers away from them. Learn more about how this potentially life-saving tool could promote peace in countries plagued by land mines once conflicts end.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Carlos Bautista

Entrepreneur, creative technologist

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TED Resident Carlos Bautista wants to close the information and technology gap for people in developing countries.

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Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor

Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor is an initiative providing research for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC). It produces several research products including the annual Landmine Monitor and Cluster Munition Monitor reports, online country profile reports as well as factsheets and maps.

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Directorate for Integral Action against Antipersonnel Mines

The Directorate for Integral Action against Antipersonnel Mines (DAICMA) is the official agency of the Colombian government. On this website, you can deepen your knowledge, find statistics and follow in great detail the process of demining in Colombia.

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Collaborative ORDnance Data Repository

The Collaborative ORDnance Data Repository (CORD) enables web-based search of landmine and other unexploded ordnance data to assist humanitarian demining and ordnance disposal operations. Here you will find a thorough database of explosive devices filtered by type, geographic reference and shape, among others.

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UN Mine Action Gateway

Established in 1997 by the UN General Assembly, UNMAS leads, coordinates and implements all aspects linked to the mitigation of the threats from mines and explosive remnants of war. Here you can find a compilation of resources related to strategy, monitoring and law of the UN Mine Action Services.

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UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library

Created by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library and the UNOG Library in collaboration with UN Mine Action Services, this guide provides information on landmines, explosive remnants of war and other weapons of societal disruption.

Ana María Sánchez-Cuervo and T. Mitchell Aide | Ecosystems, 2013 | Article

"Consequences of the Armed Conflict, Forced Human Displacement, and Land Abandonment on Forest Cover Change in Colombia: A Multi-scaled Analysis"

This article provides an interesting point of view to address the issue of how the internal armed conflict and its actors have become part of the environment change. It's helpful in the methodology for collecting data and observations used.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.