Band 8+: The chart below shows the main reasons why agricultural land becomes less productive in three regions of the world. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The bar chart compares the primary causes of agricultural land degradation in North America, Europe, and Oceania, measured as percentages of total degraded land.

Overall, Europe suffered the highest percentage of land degradation across all categories except over-grazing, which was the main cause of degraded land in Oceania. In contrast, North America experienced significantly lower levels of land degradation overall.

Regarding over-grazing, Oceania recorded the highest proportion at roughly 11.5%, compared to just under 6% in Europe and approximately 1.5% in North America. Deforestation was the most prominent factor in Europe, affecting nearly 10% of land. Oceania saw a much lower impact from deforestation at under 2%, while North America showed a negligible figure of around 0.2%.

In terms of over-cultivation, Europe again led with approximately 7.5%, whereas North America accounted for just over 3%, and Oceania showed no land degradation from this cause. Finally, other factors contributed to over 7% of land degradation in Europe, while their impact on both North America and Oceania was minimal, at under 0.5%.