This paper explained the achievements to date and proposed future activities of the long-term and large-scale MadeleÒa Project, focusing on its activities in El Salvador and Costa Rica. Based at CATIE, the project's history illustrates how lessons learned from implementation in particular countries have lead to a reorientation of project goals away from an early focus (1981-85) on improving and disseminating foresterial techniques for fuel wood species, to an emphasis in 1986-91 on multi-purpose trees, training at all levels, and the development of a database on soils, climate, tree growth and ecology, silviculture, socio-economics and forestry extension. A third phase (1991-95) intended to concentrate on developing horizontal and vertical inter-institutional collaborations to share the wealth of technical information gathered by the project.