Band 9: The pie chart below shows the main reasons why agricultural land become lesson productive. The table shows how these causes affected three regions of the world during the 1990s.

The pie chart shows the main causes of global land degradation, while the table compares the proportions of degraded land in North America, Europe and Oceania in the 1990s.

Overall, overgrazing stood out as the leading cause of land degradation worldwide, while other causes made up only a small minority. Regionally, Europe was the most severely affected area, whereas North America experienced the lowest overall level of degradation.

Looking first at the pie chart, overgrazing accounted for the largest share of global land degradation, at 35%. Deforestation ranked second at 30%, followed closely by overcultivation at 28%. Other causes made up the remaining 7%.

In terms of regional degradation, Europe recorded the highest overall figure, at 23%. In this region, deforestation was the main contributor, at 9.8%, followed by overcultivation and overgrazing, at 7.7% and 5.5%, respectively. Oceania was the second most affected region, with 13% of land degraded, most of which was linked to overgrazing at 11.3%. By contrast, North America had the lowest total figure, at 5%, with overcultivation being the main cause at 3.3%, while deforestation was negligible at just 0.2%.