Data from: Assessing and improving global grassland restoration: Drivers, current effectiveness, and future design

As the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration begins, grassland restoration
projects are being scaled up globally. However, a new generation of
opportunities and challenges requires a new generation of scientific
guidance, particularly for grassland ecosystems that need restoration. Our
meta-analysis indicated that grassland restoration significantly enhances
biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality. However, biodiversity and
ecosystem multifunctionality both increased in only half of the
restoration observations, indicating that the effectiveness of global
grassland restoration needs to be improved. Restoration methods and time
were identified as important predictors of the effectiveness of grassland
restoration. To address this, we conducted a multi-objective optimization
to assess when, where, and how to better implement grassland restoration
projects globally. This optimization aimed to provide targeted strategies
for different grassland types and regions, considering the varying
characteristics and needs of each biome.