The primary objectives of the project were to increase the supplies of fuelwood and building poles to Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar by establishing and rehabilitating eucalyptus plantations, as well as through community forestry activities and, in the process, reversing the trend of degradation of forests and plantations.

Project components included: (i) a State Forestry Program (SFP) consisting of the establishment of 11,000 ha of new plantations, rehabilitation of 13,000 ha of existing coppice plantations and construction of 372 km of forest roads and 17 forest villages to house some 4,200 families that would be moved from the plantation sites; (ii) a Community Forestry Program (CFP) comprising the establishment of 1,600 ha of state-supervised plantations and supervised upgrading of 1,000 ha; and, establishment of 8,450 ha of new plantations, plus the rehabilitation of some 2,720 ha of plantations under the self-help program.

According to the project completion report, contrary to what had been anticipated by the project design, most of the wood outputs were sold as construction poles instead of fuelwood (due to higher market value of poles).