“…In the USA, there are laws dating back to 1977 that oblige mine companies to perform after-mining restoration of the vegetation cover ( Macdonald et al., 2015 ); this fact may help to explain the high interest in the topic in the scientific community. Other countries with intense mineral extraction, such as China and Russia, also have laws regulating mine reclamation since 1986 and 1968, respectively ( Bond and Piepenburg, 1990 ; Cheng and Skousen, 2017 ); however, in practice, this legislation is not enforced ( Cao, 2007 ; Faizuldayeva, 2016 ). Countries with greater compliance with restoration laws are likely to make greater investments and be more interested in restoration research to contribute to the success of reclamation initiatives.…”