Ecuador: IFC-backed factory farming harms Indigenous peoples

Where: Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Ecuador

Since 2004, PRONACA has received $170 million from the International Finance Corporation. In March 2021, PRONACA received its most recent $50 million IFC loan for a 2020-2022 investment program. Roughly half of PRONACA’s pork and poultry operations are located in the province of Santo Domingo de Tsáchilas, within close proximity to several impoverished Indigenous communities. The MICI of the IADB is currently assessing a complaint filed by affected local Indigenous groups in relation to the IDB Invest’s investment in Pronaca. As reported by Mongabay, in December 2010 two community members alerted the IFC’s CAO to the impacts of the expansion of Pronaca’s farms. The complaints alleged that the company was contaminating local rivers, making the water unusable for both farms and households. Community members who came into contact with the water reported skin and gastrointestinal problems, according to the filings, and respiratory issues had arisen as the farms expanded. At the end of the process, the CAO team reported that the complainants weren’t willing to participate in a “mediation process” with the company. Rather, they wanted the IFC to stop the flow of money to Pronaca, a demand the CAO doesn’t have the ability to meet.