Sierra Nevada is part of Andalusia, the southernmost region of the Iberian Peninsula. Andalusia presents a great physiogeographic diversity, since it is separated from the Meseta of the center the Peninsula by the Sierra Morena, while the Guadalquivir valley divides the Sierra Morena from the Betica Cordillera, located to the south and parallel to the Mediterranean Sea. In any case, the cases of study have focused specifically on the southern slope of the Sierra Nevada, the most prominent mountain range in the entire Cordillera Betica. The history of this hillside, historically occupied by the Alpujarra region (Granada), it is characterized by a heavily anthropized landscape that cannot be understood without its historical understanding. We just have small data about the landscape of the Alpujarra until the arrival of Islam in the Middle Ages (8th century), but several studies have shown that the presence of this culture radically transformed the landscape of this region, especially in two ways: on the one hand, the terracing of the slopes to generate fertile cultivation terraces, and, on the other, the irrigation systems that will artificially supply water to these new cultivation fields. This medieval landscape, even with the various modifications made over the centuries, remains the basis of the current landscape. This agricultural landscape is inserted within truly Mediterranean forest masses adapted to drought, such as encinares (Quercus ilex) or quejigales (Quercus faginea). Likewise, other types of vegetation are present in the local landscape, such as riparian forests and artificial pine forests, planted from the second half of the 20th century. All these forest masses have been managed by the local community to obtain resources such as wood, leaves or fruits. On the other hand, above the forest masses the typical high mountain scrub appears. These high mountain spaces have traditionally been occupied by livestock activities, often generating high mountain meadows (borreguile) through the irrigation system. The disappearance of such a complex agropastoral ecosystem since the 1960s is causing profound changes in the local historical ecosystem and the abandonment of the irrigation system is having repercussions in the progressive desertification of the southern slopes of the mountain.