Band 9: The pie chart below shows the main reasons why forests are declining worldwide. The table presents how these causes affected three regions of the world during the 2010s. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The pie chart illustrates the primary reasons for the worldwide decline of forests, while the table presents the percentages of deforestation attributed to these causes in North America, Europe, and South America during the 2010s.

Overall, logging is the leading contributor to worldwide deforestation. Among the three regions, Europe experienced the highest level of deforestation, whereas North America was the least affected.

According to the pie chart, logging accounts for the highest proportion of tree removal at 40%, followed closely by agriculture at 30% and urban expansion at 20%. Only 10% of forests are removed due to unspecified factors.

The table highlights that 25.5% of Europe’s forests were affected, with approximately 15% attributed to agriculture, whereas only 2.5% of deforestation resulted from logging. South America ranked second, with 17.5% of forest loss. Notably, only 0.2% of deforestation resulted from agriculture. In contrast, North America experienced the least deforestation at 9.4%, with logging being the primary cause at 5.3%, while urban expansion had the smallest impact at just 1.6%.