The TIST program has three separate but related aims: development, commercial opportunity, and replication.

The development goal of the TIST program is to empower and equip subsistence farmers to restore their natural environment, increase soil fertility, create jobs, strengthen the local community, and move from famine to surplus.

Small Groups active in the Diocese of Mpwapwa developed these goals during the first phase of the project, and Small Groups are the key to successful implementation of the programs. Training, agriculture activities, forestation activities, and administration are accomplished through the Small Groups rather than through existing political or administrative channels. Local and international expertise is offered to groups. In seminars and mothly node meetings, training takes place in Small Group best practices, nursery development, tree planiting and care, conservation farming techniques, HIV/AIDS, nutrition and other areas of economic development and capacity building. Local and national experts in agriculture and forestry, and the experience and wisdom of the farmers themselves, is disseminated through the seminars, meetings and newsletters. International research and resources are also used whenever appropriate.

Sustainable development usually means that the society "meets the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to also meet their needs." For TIST, it also means the program will result in a long-term beneficial impact on the participants and habitat. In fact, the TIST groups have gone beyond mere sustainability by "making a better life for the next generation."

The replication goal of the TIST program is to generate an exportable model that can be implemented in other settings that have need for comprehensive reforestation and economic development programs.