The pie chart illustrates the main causes of worldwide agricultural land degradation, while the table compares how these factors affected three regions – North America, Europe and Oceania – during the 1990s.
Overall, over-grazing was the leading cause of land degradation globally, whereas Europe experienced the highest proportion of degraded land among the three regions. In contrast, North America was affected the least. The dominant cause also varied significantly by region.
According to the pie chart, over-grazing accounted for the largest share of land degradation worldwide, at 35%. Deforestation was the second most significant factor, contributing 30%, followed closely by over-cultivation at 28%. Other causes made up only a small minority, representing 7% of the total.
The table shows considerable regional differences. Europe had by far the greatest percentage of degraded land, at 23%. This problem was mainly caused by deforestation (9.8%), while over-cultivation and over-grazing contributed 7.7% and 5.5% respectively. Oceania ranked second, with 13% of land degraded, largely due to over-grazing, which alone accounted for 11.3%, whereas over-cultivation had no impact there. North America experienced the lowest overall degradation, at just 5%, where over-cultivation was the primary cause (3.3%), compared with minimal effects from deforestation (0.2%) and over-grazing (1.5%).