How do traditional agricultural activities affect biodiversity levels?

In many parts of the world, humans have been able to grow crops on landscapes characterized by steep slopes. This has been the result of the development of technologies that make agriculture possible while reducing erosion. A typical approach involves the construction of terraces which allow farmers to establish small but productive crop plots. In the Mediterranean Basin such terraces are supported by dry-stone walls, which in turn form networks of pharaonic proportions. Because such terraces are build by hand, they represent the labor of whole societies that build them across many generations. In a project led by Prof. Pafilis and several other Greek collaborators we have been investigating the importance of such structures for local biodiversity.