Over the centuries, the Cinque Terre have been conquered by the man, who changed their look, while maintaining direct contact with nature and bending it to their needs. The original forests were gradually replaced by the cultivation of vines on terraces, through the crushing of the rock and the patient construction of dry stone walls.
The dry stone walls, perhaps the clearest symbol of this Carthusian work, are built exclusively with sandstone boulders stacked and filled with rubble and earth, without the use of any other material. Among the terraced fields were built long and steep stone staircases. This work is reflected in titanic and secular figures: approximately 8,400,000 cubic meters of dry stone walls for a distance of 6,720,000 meters, that is 6729 kilometers.
Today, emigration and the abandonment of farming activity is causing a disruption of this biosystem. Where it is less a human presence, paradoxically, the degradation is immediate and the stain takes over. Indeed, the terraces have contributed decisively to the hydrogeological stability of the slopes and have created a unique landscape. The abandonment of crops causese landslides of greater extension and subtraction to the use of significant portions of territory.