Making a Geographical Decision
A Different Kind of Question
The Edexcel B people-and-environment paper ends with a 12-mark decision-making essay. You are given a resources booklet — maps, graphs, statistics, photographs, quotes — about a geographical issue drawn from Topics 7–9. You must choose between three proposed solutions and justify your choice. There is no ‘correct’ answer; what counts is the quality of your reasoning. Top-band answers do four things: weigh costs and benefits, use evidence from the booklet, balance opposing views, and reach a clearly justified conclusion.
Reading the Resources
Spend 5–7 minutes reading the booklet before writing. Annotate it. For each resource, ask: what does this tell me? and which option does it support?. Look for quantitative data (graphs, percentages, costs, numbers of people affected) — concrete numbers strengthen arguments. Look for qualitative data (quotes, photographs) — these capture human and environmental impacts. Look for spatial information on maps — which areas are at risk, which gain.
The 12-mark decision essay rewards specific evidence from the booklet. Citing ‘Figure 3 shows that the protected area covers 1,200 km²’ scores; vague references to ‘the resources’ do not.
Weighing Options
Each option in a decision essay has a mix of advantages and disadvantages, often analysed using cost-benefit analysis. The best answers think across three dimensions: economic (cost, jobs, GDP impact, who pays), environmental (CO₂, biodiversity, pollution, land-use change) and social (people affected, equity, displacement, cultural value). A solution that wins on cost may lose on environment; a solution that protects the environment may displace people. Knowing this in advance helps you write a balanced answer instead of just picking one option and dismissing the others.
Stakeholders and Perspectives
Different groups have different interests. Stakeholders are people, organisations or communities affected by a decision. In a rainforest decision, stakeholders might include: Indigenous peoples (traditional rights and livelihood), small-scale farmers (need land), logging companies (profit), national governments (development goals), Indigenous-rights NGOs (advocacy), climate scientists (carbon stock), tourists (ecotourism revenue). Listing the stakeholders and what each wants prevents you from defaulting to a one-sided answer.
Imagine the booklet asks you to choose between three Amazon strategies: (1) Open the rainforest to commercial logging with strict quotas. (2) Make the entire region a protected national park. (3) Promote ecotourism while keeping selective small-scale logging. Option 1 brings short-term jobs but long-term forest loss and CO₂ release. Option 2 protects biodiversity and carbon stocks but blocks economic development; risks illegal incursion if not enforced. Option 3 balances economic and environmental aims, gives Indigenous communities a stake, but is slower and harder to scale. A justified conclusion might pick option 3 with reasoning: ecotourism aligns Indigenous, environmental and economic interests — but only if backed by enforcement and infrastructure.
Structuring the Essay
A strong 12-mark decision essay has six paragraphs. Paragraph 1: state your decision and preview your reasons. Paragraph 2: option A — advantages with evidence. Paragraph 3: option A — disadvantages. Paragraphs 4–5: same treatment for option B and option C. Paragraph 6: justified conclusion that explicitly contrasts the chosen option with the alternatives. Aim for around 350–450 words. Reference at least three booklet sources by figure number or title (‘Figure 4 shows…’).
Top-band 12-mark answers (10–12 marks) explicitly compare the chosen option with the rejected ones. Saying ‘option B is best’ without showing why options A and C are weaker drops you to mid-band.
Common Pitfalls
Five common ways students lose marks: (1) summarising rather than evaluating — just describing the resources scores low. (2) One-sided answers that ignore costs of the chosen option. (3) No specific evidence — vague references to ‘the figures’ instead of named numbers. (4) No clear decision at the end — the question demands one. (5) Generic answers not rooted in the specific issue. Practising past papers across rainforest, energy and biosphere topics builds the muscle for choosing fast.
The decision essay can also draw on what you learned in Components 1 and 2. A question on tropical rainforests might invite you to use ideas from the global issues unit (climate change, hazards) or the UK issues unit (UK fieldwork on environmental quality). Weaving wider knowledge into the answer helps — for example noting that Amazon deforestation feeds climate change, which then increases UK flood risk — but only when it strengthens the argument, not as a tangent.