Support APOPO's Minefield Survey HeroDOGs

A very warm welcome to your latest update on APOPO’s HeroDOGs. Your support has helped us continue our landmine clearance operations in some of the world’s most dangerous places.

Over the past few months, the work of our HeroDOGs has continued to support both the protection of important cultural sites and the safe return of land to nearby communities, depending on where the need is greatest. As operations shift to meet these needs, the adaptability and reliability of our HeroDOGs remain key to ensuring that land can be safely assessed and released.

In Cambodia, after several years supporting operations around the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site of Koh Ker, our HeroDOGs are now deployed on communal land. Earlier work focused on making culturally significant sites safe for access, requiring careful, methodical survey in sensitive environments, whereas their current role is more directly linked to people’s daily livelihoods.

By supporting clearance on communal land, your generosity helps our HeroDOGs make areas safe for farming. Once released, this land can be used to grow crops, providing a source of food and income for local families.

In Ukraine, recent large-scale bombardments have affected our staff, with one of the hotels where many team members are staying being hit. Thankfully, all staff and animals were safe in bunkers, and they continue their truly heroic work to help Ukraine recover land contaminated by explosives.

To date, our Technical Survey Dogs (TSDs) have surveyed a total of 136,942 m² of land in Ukraine, while 124,868 m² has been cleared with the support of mine detection dogs (MDDs). This work is only possible thanks to support such as yours.

Access to safe land is a key step in recovery for affected communities. By helping identify and define contaminated areas, you contribute to the safe return of land to productive use, enabling families to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. Thank you.

What Are Technical Survey Dogs?

APOPO’s Technical Survey Dogs (TSDs) are trained to detect the scent of explosives and are used primarily in areas where contamination is suspected to be low or scattered. They play a unique role within the mine action sector as they help determine where explosive contamination is present and define the boundaries of hazardous areas so that clearance resources can be focused where they are most needed.

Unlike Mine Detection Dogs (MDDs) or Mine Detection Rats (MDRs), which search for all explosive items within a defined area, TSDs help identify the edges of contaminated land. Areas where evidence of explosives is found can then be designated for further investigation and clearance, while land where no evidence is detected can be reduced from the suspected hazardous area and released more quickly.

This makes TSDs particularly effective at narrowing down areas that require full clearance. By rapidly identifying contaminated zones, they help avoid the costly and time-consuming clearance of land that may not contain any explosives. This reduces the need to deploy manual deminers, MDDs, or MDRs across large areas unnecessarily, saving valuable time and resources and accelerating the safe return of land to local communities.

Where higher levels of contamination are identified, HeroDOGs may then operate as Mine Detection Dogs. In this role, they systematically search a defined area to locate individual explosive items, including landmines and explosive remnants of war. Any indications are investigated and safely dealt with by demining teams.

Working alongside manual deminers and technical teams, our HeroDOGs contribute to a coordinated approach that balances speed, accuracy, and safety across different stages of the land release process.

Links:

• HeroDOGs Website