The choice of indicator is informed by a trade-off between the benefits of including more detail in biodiversity measurements and the efficiency gains for transactions of simpler, more fungible indicators (Thomas, Brandao and Chomitz, 2004). Offsets programmes may allow replacement of only the specific type of biodiversity that is lost at a development site or may provide for more flexibility in weighing-up the equivalence of proposed offset exchanges. An in-kind offset may require conservation of the same type of biodiversity as measured by a scheme’s indicator whereas out-of-kind compensation may, for example, allow for the restoration of valuable upstream water flows rather than recreation of a wetland as is sometimes permissible in Wetlands Compensatory Mitigation in the United States (ten Kate, Bishop and Bayon, 2004). The distinction between in-kind offsets and out-of kind compensation is, however, highly dependent upon the complexity of the biodiversity indicator used in a scheme.