Watchdog Group Adds the Moon to List of Threatened Historic Sites

The Moon is one of 25 sites to be concerned about this year, according to a leading cultural heritage watchdog organization.

That organization is the World Monuments Fund, which today announced the 25 sites on its annual World Monuments Watch. The sites were selected from over 200 nominations that underwent two review cycles before selection by an independent panel of experts. The Moon stands apart from the rest as a cultural heritage site that is not on Earth.

“For the first time, the Moon is included on the Watch to reflect the urgent need to recognize and preserve the artifacts that testify to humanity’s first steps beyond Earth—a defining moment in our shared history,” said Bénédicte de Montlaur, the president and CEO of the fund, in an organization release.

“Items such as the camera that captured the televised moon landing; a memorial disk left by astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin; and hundreds of other objects are emblematic of this legacy,” de Montlaur added. “Yet, they face mounting risks amidst accelerating lunar activities, undertaken without adequate preservation protocols.”

There are over 90 historic sites on the Moon where spacecraft have made contact with the lunar surface, the release noted. One of the most famous artifacts are astronauts’ first footprints beyond Earth, made by the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969.

“As we embark on a new era of space exploration, we must ensure that the traces of these extraordinary milestones in humanity’s history—the first moon landings—are preserved,” the release stated. “The inclusion of the Moon on the 2025 Watch advocates for international agreements and protections for lunar heritage sites and invites a broader public conversation on what this new Space Age might mean for the Moon’s cultural and natural landscape.”

The Moon’s inclusion on the list is a prudent one, as humankind intends to return to the Moon and stay there for the long term. NASA’s Artemis mission plans to put a crewed mission on the lunar surface by mid-2027—though that is later than the space agency intended. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as a host of private missions, many funded through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, are planned in the coming months and years. Just this morning, for example, SpaceX launched a pair of landers to the Moon, namely Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander and ispace’s Resilience lander.

SpaceX’s Starship is also in the mix—NASA’s chosen lander for Artemis missions, yet ultimately a privately owned vessel that could one day ferry tourists to the Moon and its many historic sites.

Plans are also in the works to mine the Moon for its various resources, including water ice, helium-3, and rare earth elements (REEs). Some private ventures are also hoping to use the Moon as a kind of graveyard, in which the remains of loved ones are plopped onto the dusty surface. Needless to say, the Moon will never be the same again, prompting the World Monuments Fund to voice its concerns.

Indeed, the Moon does not have wind or flowing water on its surface, so natural degradation of lunar artifacts has not been a problem. In fact, the lunar surface is immaculately preserved. But “exploitative visitation, souveniring, and looting by future missions and private lunar exploration could eventually compromise this truly unique cultural heritage, removing artifacts and forever erasing iconic prints and tracks from the Moon’s surface,” the fund warns on its landing page for the Moon.

Other sites on the World Monument Fund’s list this year include those damaged by conflict and natural disaster, such as the historic city of Antakya (ancient Antioch) in Turkey, which was devastated by earthquakes in 2023, and Gaza’s historic urban fabric, which is on the receiving end of ongoing Israeli airstrikes.

Sites on the list that are under threat from climate change are Africa’s Swahili Coast and Maine’s historic lighthouses. Other sites include the monasteries in Albania’s Drino Valley—under pressure from over-tourism—France’s Chapel of the Sorbonne in Paris, which has been closed for years, and historic buildings in India’s Musi River, which suffers from pervasive pollution issues.

Cultural heritage needs protection from a range of threats, both natural and anthropogenic. In 2023, Greenpeace experts found that 4th-century Buddhist murals in China were being damaged by heavy rain and humidity. Last year, a group of researchers from the University of Virginia found evidence that the Russian military is damaging Ukrainian archaeological sites during its occupation of the country.

The World Monuments Fund’s full list of 25 sites for 2025 can be found on the organization’s website, but it is (obviously) not comprehensive. Though we’ve said goodbye to 2024, plenty of the sites featured in last year’s list remain under threat, many from the same causes that are endangering this year’s sites.