Band 9: The pie chart below shows the main reasons why agricultural land becomes less productive. The table shows how these causes affected three regions of the world during the 1990s. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The pie chart provided illustrates the primary causes of land degradation, while the table provides information about land degradation in three regions, which are North America, Europe and Oceania in the 1990s.

Overall, it is evident that over-grazing was the leading cause of less productive land globally. Additionally, Europe experienced the highest proportion of land degradation among the three regions.

Looking at the pie chart in more detail, over-grazing accounted for 35% of global land degradation, which was just over one-third. This was followed by deforestation and over-cultivation, contributing 30% and 28%, respectively.

Focusing on regional data, Oceania experienced the highest percentage of land degradation due to over-grazing, at 11.3%, while North America had the lowest, at only 1.5%. Notably, Oceania did not experience any land degradation caused by over- cultivation, whereas Europe reported 7.7% from this cause. In terms of deforestation, Europe contributed merely 0.2%, while Europe and Oceania accounted for 9.8% and 1.7%, respectively. In comparison, North America had the smallest proportion of land degradation, with only 5% of its land becoming less productive.