The bar chart illustrates the proportion of agricultural land that became less productive as a result of four causes – over-grazing, deforestation, over-cultivation and other factors – in three regions of the world: North America, Europe and Oceania.
Overall, Europe suffered from land degradation to a far greater extent than the other two regions, posting relatively high figures across every category. North America, by contrast, was the least affected throughout, while the most conspicuous single feature was the exceptionally high level of over-grazing recorded in Oceania.
In Oceania, over-grazing alone accounted for 11.3% of degraded land, by some distance the highest figure anywhere on the chart. Its remaining causes were minimal, and over-cultivation had no impact at all. Europe presented a far more balanced picture, its land being degraded chiefly by deforestation (9.8%), over-cultivation (7.7%) and other factors (7.1%), with a further 5.5% attributable to over-grazing.
North America remained comparatively unscathed. Over-cultivation was its principal cause at just 3.3%, ahead of over-grazing at 1.5%, whereas deforestation and other causes each contributed a negligible 0.2%.