The World Monuments Fund places the Moon on the list of sites at risk

For years, the World Monuments Fund has sought to focus attention and resources on endangered cultural heritage sites, including Machu Picchu in Peru, temples in Cambodia, and the ancient city of Taiz in Yemen.

But this year’s list of sites at risk goes much further: to the Moon.

“The Moon seems so far out of our reach,” said Bénédicte de Montlaur, president and CEO of the organization. “But with humans venturing more and more into space, we think it’s a good time to get organized.”

Concerned that the new space race could exacerbate space debris and expand tourism in orbit and beyond, the group named the Moon as one of 25 threatened sites in its World Monuments Watch 2025. Other sites in The list, threatened by challenges such as climate change, tourism, conflict and natural disasters, includes Gaza, a damaged historic building in kyiv and coastal erosion in Kenya and the United States.

As increasing numbers of wealthy people go to space and more governments pursue human spaceflight, the group warns that more than 90 important sites on the Moon could be damaged. Some researchers are particularly concerned about Tranquility Base, the Apollo 11 landing site where astronaut Neil Armstrong first set foot on the surface of the Moon.

Cultural heritage protections are usually decided by each country, making the task of caring for important international sites like the Moon more difficult.

Since 2020, the United States and 51 other countries have signed the Artemis Accords, a non-binding agreement that sets expected standards in space. The rules included a call to preserve space heritage, including “robotic landing sites, artifacts, spacecraft and other evidence of activity on celestial bodies.” A separate, binding United Nations agreement provided for protection of lunar sites, but little progress was made in convincing key countries to sign it.