The ‘traditional’ elements of the landscape (terraces,stonewalls, paths, farm infrastructures and buildings) are not preserved and as a consequence they are either destroyed or have deteriorated and although farmers claim that they
care about their quality, they rarely do something to preserve it. This is more evident in the case of the elements that are
made of stone, because the construction and maintenance of these elements requires experience and skill and nowadays is expensive to find and pay experienced and skilled craftsmen.These difficulties are greater for farm infrastructure, where expertise is vital, while modern material, building styles and techniques are cheap, easy to find, transport and can be built by unskilled workers or the farmers themselves. Stonewalls are easier to make, but most of the recent ones that we have seen are built in different styles than older ones. They are more ‘harmonized’ and ‘symmetrical’ and the stones are not usually local; they are smaller, sometimes stabilized with concrete and cut into rectangular shapes, in contrast with the older stonewalls which were made of local stones in accordance with local traditions. Terraces are not very easy
to maintain either, as important damages in the walls may require digging and new stones. Our informants complain that
modern terrace builders use stonewalls techniques, seemingly less stable than older ones. In any case, terrace craftsmen are also scarce and expensive