Through strategically selected partners and the work of the Green Forum, hbs supports programs which are crucial to raise the level of environmental consciousness both in government and civil society in the area of pollution, deforestation, biofuel, and climate change issues.

The Foundation considers the development of environmental consciousness as an important step in mobilizing citizens to get involved in public affairs and ultimately in politics. Nevertheless, before citizens get politically mobilized by a certain set of problems they need to know about them, understand the causes and effects, and relate them to their own situation. The assumption is that the deteriorating environmental living conditions especially in urban areas of Ethiopia can be a mobilizing theme through which the extremely passive and withdrawn population can become interested in organizing themselves to demand improvements or even search for solutions themselves. However, such a mobilization will not succeed if the decision-makers in government are not open to the idea that environmental concerns must be taken serious.

So far, hbs closely works with four partners. In the near future, the ecology program of the Foundation will focus on climate change and land use issues having the following program Goals;

(i) The Ethiopian civil society has a clear understanding of the negative impact of climate change and is capable of influencing adaptation policies and public opinion;
(ii) State and non-state actors effectively participate in a national dialogue on land use; and
(iii) The Green Forum provides a platform for environmental discourse and agenda setting.