The pie chart illustrates the main causes of agricultural land degradation worldwide, while the bar chart compares how these factors affected North America, Europe, and Oceania during the 1990s.
Overall, over-grazing was the leading cause of land degradation globally, followed closely by deforestation and over-cultivation. Salinization contributed the smallest proportion. In terms of regional impact, Europe experienced the highest level of land degradation, while North America was the least affected.
According to the pie chart, over-grazing accounted for 34% of global land degradation. Deforestation represented 30%, and over-cultivation made up 28%. In contrast, salinization had a relatively minor impact, at only 8%.
The bar chart shows that Europe was most severely affected, with a total of about 23.7% of land degraded. Deforestation was the largest contributor in this region (8.4%), followed by over-cultivation (7.7%) and over-grazing (5.6%). Oceania had a total degradation rate of approximately 13.6%, mainly caused by over-grazing (10.8%). Meanwhile, North America recorded the lowest overall figure at around 7.8%, with over-cultivation being the dominant cause.
In conclusion, while over-grazing was the most significant cause worldwide, the main contributing factor varied by region