Environmental Heroes Acknowledged

Ethiopia’s President, Girma Woldegiorgis, handed out Na-tional Environmental Heroes awards, to institutions and indi-viduals for exemplary achieve-ment in the field of environ-mental protection and develop-ment, at a ceremony held on July 21, at the Hilton hotel. The fourth annual 2009 National Green Awards ceremony was organized by the local NGO Fo-rum for Environment (FfE) and was attended by ministers, par-liamentarians, diplomats, invited guest and the media. Awardees were selected through competi-tions that covered the entire country. Selection was made from categories such as: youth group, schools, CSOs, NGOs, the private sector, individuals and government. Wining contribu-tions included re-forestation, rehabilitation of degraded land, research, turning waste into bio-gas energy, and turning urban waste management into employ-ment opportunity. For example, Gashaw Tahir, founder of the Greenland Foundation, is using his own finances to support a successful land rehabilitation effort in rural Ethiopia that incor-porates elements of employ-ment, education, and land use training...

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Mr. Gashaw Tahir - Example of Private Sector “Green Hero”

Mr. Gashaw Tahir from the Amhara National Regional State, awarded top prize in the private sector category in this year’s National Green Awards, paid a visit to UNEP Addis Ababa Office and demonstrated the “before” and “after” depicting
his work in the field.

Mr. Gashaw, part of the Ethiopian Diaspora in the United States of America, came back after a long absence and found that the natural resources in his home area had become severely degraded. He decided to take the initiative and expended his financial resources and physical power to do
something about the situation...


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An Ethiopian green hero

BY MENGESHA AMARE

Environmental degradation, climate change and global warming are now widely recognized as the defining challenges particularly in developing countries. Of course, everyone has a role to play in reducing the threat that environmental damage and other factors causing havoc pose to sustainable development, public well-being, peace, security and quality of life. What should be well understood in this respect is therefore, whoever we are, wherever we are from, there are many ways we can contribute to the effort in reversing the devastating effects of either man-made or natural calamities such as environmental degradation...

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Green Heroes Acknowledged (Amharic) Click here to download