This paper presents a single case of an extensive study amid a package of activities to preserve the oasis, involving local farmer organisations, NGOs, the local Government and business community. Local authorities and NGOs assume that farmers have forgotten traditional methods and need training and awareness-raising to motivate farm workers to restore these practices. We interviewed key informants and farmers, participated in workshops with local NGOs and walked across the oasis, where we found that in some places the traditional three-layer cropping system was intact, and in others the diverse system was destroyed and the land polluted or encroached with (illegal) building. Out of the multitude of stories and cases we came across, we highlight two families working on rather contrasting sites to unveil mechanisms by which farmers do or do not deliver environmental services.