Offsets for ecological losses are fraught with difficulties arising from replicability of the ecosystem function and structure lost. In wetlands, offsets by creating constructed wetlands elsewhere or purchasing mitigation credits have often failed because of poor replication. While the concept is conceptually appealing, the basic assumption of "easy replicability" of complex ecosystem function is fundamentally flawed. In developing countries, such offset strategies without careful assessment could lead to further loss of valuable ecosystems to development.  

Hi Firstly thanks for your answers appreciate them. I am trying to get my head around the issues relating to environmental offsets. I have real problem on how to implement these effectively. Common sense tells me it could just be big business or governments trying to appease the people without actually implementing anything meaningful and that effectively improves or enhances the environmental and its process.

I think my approach will havand disposal of saline wastee to be more pragmatic and use the opportunity to implement remedial measures which have been used for years to improve the environment i.e. simple erosion control measures, as in Southern Africa erosion is one of the biggest issues relating to sustainable agriculture and food security. The knock effect of this is the protection of riverine systems especially the estuaries and wetlands which bare the brunt of poor agricultural practises due to elevated sediment loads in rivers and streams. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Sorry I think I picked up a little problem with paragraph 2 line 1 - pleas remove "and disposal of saline waste" not sure how that appeared.