A Special evaluation of a project to develop the institutional capability of the Horticulture and Social Forestry Department (H&SFD) of the Government of Maharashtra, India, to help villagers manage community and private forest lands. Results were mixed. On the positive side, community and private tree planting activities achieved or exceeded proposed targets, and villager interest and participation in both types of planting increased. There was significant progress in staff training and extension during the first 2 years of the project. However, H&SFD resources shifted almost exclusively to tree planting activities, with little attention being given to continued development of staff expertise and management capability. The perceived need to shift plantation management responsibilities to villagers likewise decreased. Also on the negative side, management and research studies needed by H&SFD staff in preparing detailed village management plans had yet to be undertaken. Two project assumptions appear invalid - that rural communities would wish to assume complete responsibility for managing their plantations, and that wood as fuelwood and fodder rather than as a cash crop would motivate villagers to participate in the program. Three main lessons were learned. (1) Project goals should be framed with more attention to the interests of the GOI and also to the interests and capabilities of the implementing agencies and the recipients themselves. (2) Greater specificity is needed in the Project Paper regarding who is to be trained and by whom, the quality and level of training, the facilities to be used, and the numbers to be trained against a specific project timetable. (3) The program's long-term sustainability needs to be stressed. Project success should be measured not so much in terms of production output, e.g., the ha of trees planted, as of H&SFD's success in involving the communities in all aspects of the program.