This is GDF
Making Africa Green Again.
Based now in Los Angeles and established first in Ethiopia in 2006, Greenland Development Foundation (GDF) is a non-profit and non-governmental organization dedicated to ecosystem restoration, climate change reversal, and environmental responsibility. GDF pioneered Ethiopia’s reforestation and food-sustainability movements.
Our Mission
Our Mission is to replant forests, end world hunger, & empower communities with transformational education! Our mission includes motivating people of diverse religious, ethnic, and national backgrounds to trust, plant, and work together to restore natural environments and increase food security. ❤️🍎🍏🌳🌍
Our Vision
Our Vision is to “Make Africa Green Again” and to replant hundreds more of our most precious Earth environments in Africa, the United States, and beyond! We are committed to environmental justice and world peace! We lead the “We Plant Trees for Peace” Movement worldwide! #WePlantPeace
Our Story
GDF planted over 1,000,000 trees in Ethiopia!
Ethiopian-born American citizen Gashaw Tahir traveled back to his homeland several years ago and was shocked at the massive deforestation that had taken place since his departure. Rivers had dried, mountains had been deforested, and rising temperatures due to climate change were making plant life more difficult to maintain. Tahir decided that something had to be done. He gathered young people from his hometown — only a few dozen at first — but those recruited their friends and family until there were hundreds. On only two acres of land, they planted the first thousand seedlings. Now, Tahir owns 105 acres (about 44 hectares) of Ethiopian land upon which his group has planted over one million trees for peace!
Our Journey
The Goal For Our Home.
Natural. Sustainable.
- Empowering the poor, women, orphan children and the youth through education, training and employment-for-environment opportunities
- Constructing rural roads and developing clean water sources for communities in Danglia, Northwest Ethiopia
- Bringing together thousands of people with diverse religious and cultural groups
- Facilitating collaboration between government entities and local communities
- Planting fruit trees and vegetables that can be harvested quickly by promoting irrigation systems
- Integrating both traditional ecological knowledge & scientific findings toward a holistic & comprehensive socio-ecological adaptation in rural communities
Our Achievements
GDF is dedicated to replanting forests, ending world hunger, & empowering communities with transformational education! We pioneered the reforestation and food-sustainability movements through irrigation in Ethiopia.
GDF addresses the problems of climate change, deforestation, and food insecurity. The “climate emergency” is causing problems for human health and food security due to deforestation, land degradation, and soil erosion. With deforestation, temperatures are rising and rivers are drying. Wild animal populations decrease and biodiversity is lost.
GDF’s accomplishments are unique. Our Founder Gashaw Tahir was honored as a “National Green Hero” by the President of Ethiopia in 2009. He was officially recognized by the United Nations and White House as well as at the G-20 Summit in Toronto in 2010.
GDF is dedicated to replanting forests, ending world hunger, & empowering communities with transformational education! We pioneered Ethiopia’s reforestation and food-sustainability movements. Starting in 2007, GDF replanted over a million trees, including fruit trees, on 105 acres of deforested land near the source of the Nile River! Over 450 young people of diverse backgrounds were hired.
Gashaw A. Tahir Founder & Executive Director
Ethiopian-American Gashaw A. Tahir is the CEO of GreenLand Development Foundation (GDF). He is a world peace activist, a humanitarian, and a National Green Hero of Ethiopia who has dedicated his life to “reversing climate change” by “Making Africa Green Again.”
Mr. Tahir is recognized internationally as the “Father of the Green Movement” for his self-funded groundbreaking action of planting over a million trees near the source of the Nile River in Ethiopia from 2007 to 2009.
Mr. Tahir’s work for environmental restoration has been recognized by the Ethiopian government, the White House, the U.S. State Department, the United Nations, and many environmental agencies, media, and countries around the world including:
- An Ethiopian Green Hero – Gashaw Abdela Tahir (Ethiopian Herald – August 2009)
- Mr. Gashaw Tahir – Example of Private sector “Green Hero” – Addis UN Environmental Program, Ababa Highlights (August 2009)
- Gashaw Tahir Environmental Green Hero (Addis Admas News Paper – 2009)
- Green Hero Award by the Ethiopian President (2009)
- Gashaw Tahir Environmental Green Hero (Addis Zemen Newspaper – 2009)
- Gashaw Tahir Environmental Green Hero (Reporter Megaze – 2009)
- US State Department Recognizes Accomplishments Gashaw Tahir (February 2010)
- Plant one million trees, to green hills that surrounded his home eroded and ruined due to deforestation. (ShareAmerica – Mar 15, 2010)
- One Million Trees Counting, President Obama is Challenging People… (April 2010)
- Planting One Million Trees, Arab News (April 2010)
- Gashaw Tahir Fights Deforestation, Plants One Million Trees In Ethiopia, (Huffington Post – May 2010)
- America Ecology TV, Friday Night at Movie Index featured Gashaw Tahir, Bill Gates, and others (June 2010)
- Gashaw Tahir Replacing Forest in Africa, Environment in South Africa (June 2010)
- Recognized at the G-20 Summit (June 2010)
- UN Green National Hero Raises Awareness of Climate Warming (San Francisco, CA, preWeb – November 18, 2010)
- International Tree Hero Earth Day (America.gov – 2010)
- United Nations, We Plant Trees for Peace (Sacramento, CA – September 2017)
- Gashaw Tahir, Replacing Forest in Africa (The White House Post)
Our Team
Ayn Gelagay
Project Manager
Jenny Sherman
Marketing
Hayat Mohammed
Finance
Samuel Abebe
Business Advisor
Seth D. King
Public Relations & Communications
Dr. James Dohn
Technology Advisor
Green Legacy In The News
As seen on
FAQ
Most frequent questions for our founder and their answers
Greenland Foundation is a collection of family members and committed friends who are discovering creative ways to empower women and children. The foundation first came into being as a result of my visiting my homeland of Ethiopia in 2001. I was visiting my family who lived in Gojam, Dangela zone where I was born and grew up. Greenland Development Foundation (GDF) replanted over a million trees, including fruit trees, on deforested mountain land near the source of the Nile River! I established the nonprofit foundation first in Ethiopia in 2006, and in the U.S. in 2011. Greenland Development Foundation (GDF) is a non-profit and non-governmental organization dedicated to ecosystem restoration, climate change reversal, and environmental responsibility.
What are the three basic spheres that GDF works on? (We will be talking about three of them in perspective of Africa)
- Fighting against global warming & climate change.
- Stopping the climate emergency.
- Standing for environmental justice.
- Standing in integrity with the United Nations 17 Sustainable Goals!
- Standing in integrity with the United Nations 17 Sustainable Goals!
- Our first reforestation project continues permanently at the source of the Nile River in Ethiopia.
- We are now building the world’s first eco-friendly; holistic, humane, biodiverse, & integrated; self-sustaining & self-recycling; artificial, chemical, pollution, & waste-free biovillage! #SourceNileBiovillage
- Commitment to ending world hunger.
- Planting fruit trees..
- Planting harvestable crop vegetables.
- Using irrigation to expand the harvestable season.
- In our 2010 original pilot program in Metu, we used irrigation to expand food production up to all year long in Ethiopia.
- Partnership with farmers of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds in Ethiopia.
- Positive, humble, motivated, & grateful mental attitude.
- Touch, move, and inspire people into action on what is most important to them in their lives.
- Empowering young people, women, & indigenous communities.
- Unity in diversity and peace for environmental partnership.
- We lead the “We Plant Trees for Peace” Movement worldwide! ❤️🍎🍏🌳🌍
- Transformational education from Landmark Education where being an extraordinary person is at the foundation of Landmark culture based upon measurable results. 💪🏼🦁✊🏾
- Being a tortured refugee from Ethiopia migrated in 1979 to Sudan.
- Starting out in America in 1982, when I first arrived and faced cultural shock.
- Survival in the US as a refugee.
- Facing the language barrier knowing only a few English words when I arrived.
- Working to gain an AA degree as a mechanic in America in 1986.
Let's hear from you
Share your opinion about our Annual Day of Planting or any other thoughts, comments, or suggestions. We’d love to hear from you