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impact of that technology has been” (Ibid.), this is highly the case for our study asREDD as a new approach is (being) implemented and our aim is to look at how thisnew approach will affect the local community in question. However, as REDD is sonew, our case also encompasses elements of the revelatory case as this entails “whenan investigator has an opportunity to observe and analyse a phenomenon previouslyinaccessible to scientific investigation” (Yin 2003, p.42.). Thus the way we see it ourcase is actually a mix of the two above categories. Yin also puts forward a fifthcategory and calls it the longitudinal case in suggesting that a case can be chosenbecause it has the opportunity to be investigated at a later stage. Our study in itselfwas executed and completed in one point of time, not at several stages, nor with theaim of doing later studies, and thus we do not see our case study to fit in this category.However the case does comprise a longitudinal element 7 , but as Bryman points out“many case studies comprise a longitudinal element, so that it is more likely that acase will be chosen both because it is appropriate to the research questions on one ofthe other four grounds and also because it can be studied over time” (Bryman 2008,p.56.)3.2 Validity and ReliabilityIn order to maximize the quality of the study one needs to take into consideration theissue of validity and reliability, more precisely: construct validity, internal validity,external validity, and reliability.Internal validity focuses on whether a causal relationship is established, i.e. whethercertain conditions can be proved to lead to other conditions. This however onlyapplies for what is called exploratory or causal studies and not for those which ismore descriptive or exploratory in nature (Yin 2003). In terms of our study it ismainly a descriptive and exploratory study where we identify and map the Tanzanianstructure both before and after REDD implementation as well as assess the conditionson the ground. However, we have also included a smaller causal element to it, orrather speculation of causal relationships, i.e. what might happen and what might bethe outcomes of the REDD implementation.7 In fact one of the main objectives of POVSUS-REDD, for which we did the baseline study, is toreturn to the pilot project in Kilosa at a later stage to do a follow up study.58