The Mongolian Bankhar Project

The Mongolian Bankhar Dog Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is:

-to preserve and protect a traditional Mongolian way of life

-to protect Mongolia’s predators from lethal predator control methods    -and to help slow down desertification of the Mongolian ecosystem through resuscitating the traditional use of the livestock guardian dog known as the ‘Bankhar dog’. 

MBDP researches, breeds, and trains Mongolian Bankhar livestock protection dogs, and places these working dogs with nomadic herding families throughout Mongolia, where the Bankhar perform their traditional role of protecting livestock herds against predators including snow leopards, wolves, brown bears, foxes, and eagles.  Lethal predator control (shooting, trapping, poison) and retribution killings of predators are major threats to predator populations in Mongolia. The use of the Livestock Protection Dog has been shown to reduce predation on domestic livestock by 80-100%, eliminating the need for lethal predator control and allowing predators to target natural prey species instead of domestic ones.

Desertification of Mongolia’s ecosystems is the greatest threat to the traditional Mongolia way of life and to well-being of the majority of Mongolia’s threatened wildlife species.  Loss of grasses and soil leads to limited grazing areas needed by both the natural communities and the human communities within Mongolia.