CAO investigates IFC’s involvement in contentious cable car project in Nepal
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Article summary
The complaint alleges the project breached IFC’s safeguards on Indigenous rights, cultural heritage and biodiversity.
Following Indigenous People’s resistance, the Compliance Advisory Ombudsman (CAO) – the accountability mechanism for the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm – is investigating the IFC’s role in supporting the Pathivara cable car project in Mukkumlung, a sacred site in the Himalayas, Nepal. The project’s developer, IME Group, received advisory support from the IFC between 2022 and 2024, and investments of over $50 million plus $500 million in trade finance guarantees over the past decade.
In August 2025, Indigenous leaders filed a complaint to the CAO, claiming the IFC failed to ensure that IME Group complied with IFC’s Performance Standards, since it did not perform a formal Environmental Impact Assessment, despite the high social and environmental impacts of the project. By December 2025, over 10,000 trees had been felled in habitats of endangered species, while protestors have faced violent repression by the police. While the IFC only made its involvement public in July 2024, when it exited the project, it continues to invest in Global IME Bank, which is part of the IME Group.
“Indigenous Limbu people did not give their consent for this project on their land, and they are facing ongoing retaliation. We hope this can help both to stop further abuses and secure remedy for affected communities, and to ensure the IFC learns lessons to inform the review of Performance Standards,” said Kate Geary, of international civil society organisation Recourse.
On 1 April, the CAO released an Assessment Report on the Nepal Pathivara cable car complaint, announcing the case has been transferred to compliance appraisal.
