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Chambers 3 , who was a prominent critic of the top-down approach of developmentresearch and practice (Schafer 2002). During the 1990‟s it gained momentum with anincreased focus of sustainable development and a view that there is a close connectionbetween poverty and environmental degradation (Ellis 2000; Schafer 2002). Based onwork from several organisations 4 , a framework was later adopted by DFID(Department For International Development) in the late 1990‟s to clarify the approachand its development (Carney 2002). More generally, it is based upon thoughts aboutpoverty reduction and how people live their lives; on structural and institutionalissues, and draw upon three decades of changing views of poverty (Ashley andCarney 1999). However, a variety of different frameworks exist, although anchored inthe same conceptual understanding of poverty and its causes that underpinssustainable development 5 .2.2.1 Forest income, SLA and REDD“More than 1.6 billion people depend to varying degrees on forest for theirlivelihoods. About 60 million indigenous people are almost wholly dependent onforest. Some 350 million people who live within or adjacent to dense forests dependon them to a high degree for subsistence and income” (World Bank 2004, p.16)A fundamental question for REDD+ is to what extent rural communities aredependent on forests. The above quote gives us some ideas of the overall scale ofsuch dependencies. Since REDD aims at compensating local forest managers in termsof carbon stored, the opportunity cost becomes essential since it will affect the levelof incentives people will have. Calculating the forest income will therefore become ofgreat importance to be able to establish an effective and efficient REDD+ regime.Income diversification is a distinguishing feature of rural livelihood strategies in poorcountries (Ellis 2000, p.4). Most households thus manage a broad portfolio ofactivities and income sources. However, as Ellis points out, there is a differencebetween diversity and diversification. Where diversity refers to the existence of many3 Chambers and Conway (1992) also link the three concepts of capability, equity and sustainabilitytogether presenting them as a framework or paradigm for development thinking.4 CARE, UNDP, Oxfam and IISD were some of the early adopters of sustainable livelihoods.methodologies.5 Hussein (2002) goes through and compare several livelihood approaches used by different agencies.32