World Bank urged to give up plans of financing Ecuador’s largest factory farm

This article was originally published by Sinergia Animal.

After an investigation by Mongabay, The Guardian, and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, it was shown that Pronaca has built over 30 pork and poultry factory farms in the Ecuadorian province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas since the 1990s. According to their report, “waste from the animals eventually ends up in their rivers, tainting it with fecal coliform bacteria, causing skin and gastrointestinal problems and respiratory issues.”

In April of 2021, a coalition of NGOs sent, today (April 16, 2021), a letter to the board of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s commercial lending arm, urging them to vote against a proposed USD 50 million loan for the expansion of Pronaca, Ecuador’s largest industrial livestock producer.

“As a public financial institution, the IFC’s investments must be guided by public interest. This is not what is happening, quite the opposite. It is time for this financial institution to stop funding the expansion of factory farms, like it is planning to do with Pronaca in Ecuador”, says Merel van der Mark, head of animal welfare and finance at Sinergia Animal, one of the NGOs heading the conversation attempts with IFC. “We are urging people all over the world to join us to stop this by accessing our website and sending messages to the IFC today”, she added.