The true positive impact of demining isn't the amount of square meters cleared, but the number of poor people that either benefit by having access to land for resettlement and production, or preventing them from becoming victims of land mines and UXOs.

In a country which went through decades of wars and conflicts, where millions of mines were laid by all factions, and where the lives of more than half of the population relies on subsistence agriculture produced on the land heavily affected by mines and UXO, one can imagine how great an impact these hidden killers have.

Statistically, over 80% of the Cambodian people are farmers. These people are engaged in subsistence agriculture practiced on farmland, but the wars destroyed much of the infrastructure including the irrigation system. In most areas of the country, the farmers can only produce crops one time per year. The crops are sometimes severely affected by floods or insufficient rainfall resulting from the "small dry season within the rainy season". This makes contemporary agriculture and living totally dependent on the monsoon rain. Even after the country finally achieved peace, the rehabilitation work of the irrigation system still has many obstacles. One of them, along with lack of funding and development projects, has been the existence of mines.

The roads have also been severely affected by the wars. Lack of maintenance and heavy traffic during the wars were the main causes of the deterioration of the road infrastructure. Furthermore, many roads were the strategic elements of the fighting factions who used the roads for the transportation of troops and ammunition. To prevent the other factions from doing the same or from entering their territory, they laid thousands of both personal and anti-tank mines. After the wars, many roads cannot be used as they are heavily contaminated by mines. Some roads became forested as a result of negligence or because they have not been used for fear of the hidden killers.

Mine action, [which includes mine awareness, marking, clearance, and training], is considered one of the highest priorities by the Royal Government of Cambodia. Settlement, agriculture, and development projects are hampered for fear of these hidden killers as no one knows for sure where the mine/UXO are exactly located. During the course of an activity in these suspected minefields, a mine/UXO poses a constant threat and potential nightmare to the local villager.

The repatriation process is not yet over. Over half a million Cambodian people living in various refugee camps in Thailand have been repatriated and the former Khmer Rouge surrendered to the Royal Government, therefore, they need land to build houses, to farm, and to support infrastructure development such as roads, irrigation, hospitals, schools, pond, wells, and pagodas etc. Internally displaced people continue to be a problem to be solved in Cambodia. A lot of the former refugees are currently living in or near the minefields, or in remote areas where access roads are heavily mined.

Given limited resources and enormous demand, the following clearance priorities are clearly set out in the Royal Decree in order to respond to clearance requirements requested by a large number of communities:

However, in practical terms, the minefield priority selection has been divided into two phases:

To select minefields for clearance in the Development Phase, CMAC's Socio-Economic Branch closely cooperates with local authorities and Land Use Planning Unit (LUPU). Upon receiving the requests from affected communities, an assessment is conducted regarding the casualty rates and the socio-economic benefits of the minefield in question. If the requested minefield has a history of high casualty rates and has a high priority for settlement or development, CMAC will select the minefield and include it in the Integrated Work Plan for clearance. In other words, minefields to be cleared are not CMAC's minefields, but they are minefields of the community, meaning they are requested by the community and will be used by the community for humanitarian and development purposes. Taking the high cost of clearance into account, CMAC will not clear any minefield if there is no clear indication or proof of who will occupy the minefield and how the minefield will be used after clearance. All minefields which CMAC select to clear must benefit the needy community at large.