Band 8+: The pie chart below represents the main reasons why Agricultural land becomes less productive. The bar chart show how these causes affected three regions of the world in the 1990s. Summarise the data by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

The pie chart illustrates the main global causes degradation of the world, while the bar chart compares how these factors affected three regions in the 1990s.

Overall, over-grazing was the most significant cause worldwide, whereas the salinization contributed the least. Europe experienced the highest level of land degradation, while North America had the lowest.

Firstly, according to the pie chart, over-grazing accounted for the largest share of global land degradation at 34%. Deforestation followed closely at 30%, and over-cultivation made up 28%. Salinization had the smallest impact, representing only 8% of the total.

The bar chart shows notable differences among the regions. Europe had the highest proportion of degraded land at approximately 23%, mainly due to deforestation (9.8%) and over-cultivation (7.7%). In contrast, Oceania’s land degradation reached 13%, and this was overwhelmingly caused by over-grazing (11.3%). North America experienced the lowest rate, at about 5%, with over-cultivation (3.3%) being the primary issue, while deforestation and over-grazing contributed only minor percentages.