The nonprofit's 2025 World Monuments Watch list also includes sites imperiled by war and climate change.
Every year, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) compiles a list of heritage sites it deems at risk, with the aim of building awareness and mobilizing action. These sites are usually Earth-bound, as you'd expect. But this year, the nonprofit has included on its World Monuments Watch an otherworldly entry: the Moon.
WMF's 2025 Watch features 25 sites spanning five continents and space, which are currently imperiled by factors not limited to climate change, natural disasters, and overtourism. The lunar surface, the organization noted, holds more than 90 historic sites that call for protection amid increasing space activity.
"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 WMF president and CEO Bénédicte de Montlaur in a statement.
Since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first landed on the moon in 1969, humans have left behind footprints and artifacts that WMF noted "represent humankind's most extraordinary feats of science, ingenuity, and courage." These include Tranquility Base, the site of Apollo 11's landing, as well as the memorial disk, containing goodwill messages from U.S. presidents, that the astronauts left on the Moon.
Since 1984, the United Nations has in place a Moon Agreement, signed by five countries so far, to ensure peaceful space exploration, which notes that "the Moon and its natural resources are the common heritage of mankind." As Moon exploration has ramped up in recent years -- with NASA's Artemis program, missions by countries including China and India, and whatever Jeff Koons is doing -- 52 nations inked the Artemis Accords in 2020, outlining principles for cooperative space missions. These guidelines include sustainability, responsible behavior, and heritage preservation.
WMF is advocating for such international agreements and protections to better preserve lunar heritage sites. Its hope, too, is to raise public awareness and dialogue on how space exploration might impact the Moon's landscape.
"The inclusion of the Moon underscores the universal need for proactive and cooperative strategies to protect heritage -- whether on Earth or beyond -- that reflect and safeguard our collective narrative," de Montlaur added.
The Watch also highlights a host of other endangered heritage sites closer to home. Among them are the historical structure Kyiv Teacher's House in Ukraine and Gaza's historic urban landscape, both threatened by ongoing conflicts. Climate change, too, has emerged as a critical challenge for heritage sites on the Watch list, such as those on the Swahili Coast of Africa.
Other monuments and artifacts on the list are in dire need of restoration. The terracotta sculptures in the Alcobaça Monastery, a 12th-century church in Portugal, have deteriorated with the changing climate, while the 17th-century Chapel of the Sorbonne in Paris's Latin Quarter has been closed due to urgent structural issues. An effort is also in place to restore the Belfast Assembly Rooms, one of the oldest civic structures in Northern Ireland, reopening it as a museum dedicated to documenting the Troubles.
Overtourism, meanwhile, is threatening sites including the Buddhist grottoes of Maijishan and Yungang in China, which house stunning centuries-old temples carved out of rock. Industrial development, too, is encroaching on North Carolina's Great Trading Path in the U.S., a historic trail of spiritual and cultural significance to the region's Indigenous peoples.
According to the WMF, it has raised more than $120 million to date for preservation projects at some 350 heritage sites on its Watch list. The program's visibility has also helped communities unlock an additional $300 million from external sources, it said.
"The Watch underscores World Monuments Fund's commitment to ensuring that heritage preservation not only honors the past," said de Montlaur, "but actively contributes to building a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient future for communities around the world and beyond."