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The moon has been placed on a list of threatened heritage sites, owing to fears of potential looting and destruction caused by planned commercial trips.
The watchlist of the World Monuments Fund (WMF) usually includes vulnerable cultural sites on Earth. This year’s selection – the first since 2022 – includes Qhapaq Ñan, a pre-Hispanic Andean road system. Antakya in Turkey and the Noto peninsula in Japan, which were damaged by earthquakes, also made the list.
Bénédicte de Montlaur, the president and chief executive of WMF, said the moon was included among the 25 sites because of “mounting risks amidst accelerating lunar activities”, which were, in the WMF’s opinion, “undertaken without adequate preservation protocols”.
SpaceX launched two lunar landers on Wednesday to conduct research for future missions. Only five countries – the US, China, India, Japan and the former Soviet Union – have successfully landed vehicles on the moon since the 1960s.
Private trips to the lunar surface are expected after Nasa’s Artemis III mission, scheduled for mid-2027, makes the first crewed touchdown since the early 1970s. These visits and other government-funded missions are the main cause for concern for the WMF. There is particular anxiety about tourists disturbing sites such as the footprints left by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
“For the first time, the moon is included … to reflect the urgent need to recognise and preserve the artefacts that testify to humanity’s first steps beyond Earth – a defining moment in our shared history,” Montlaur said.
“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 … 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.”
Montlaur told the Art Newspaper that amid a new era of space exploration, it was important to establish international mechanisms to protect the moon’s cultural landscape.
“Safeguarding lunar heritage will prevent damage from accelerating private and governmental activities in space, ensuring these artefacts endure for future generations,” she said.
The vast majority of the list is made up of sites that are either in conflict zones, such as Ukraine and Gaza, or at risk from the climate crisis.
The Swahili coast of Africa, which includes sites such as Lamu Old Town, Kenya; Fort Jesus, Kenya is listed, as is the Island of Mozambique, which is under threat from coastal erosion. The WMF has also added “Gaza’s historic urban fabric”, which has been devastated by the war with Israel.
There are also sites the organisation thinks could benefit from more sustainable tourism, such as the Orthodox monasteries of Drino Valley in Albania, and it flags that overcrowding at other sites, such as China’s Buddhist grotto sites Maijishan and Yungang, is putting them at risk.
The list in 2022 featured prehistoric cave paintings of Monte Alegre state park in the Brazilian Amazon, the Aztec ruins of Teotihuacán in Mexico and the pre-Columbian archaeological site Garcia Pasture in Texas.
