On France Culture, Bénédicte de Montlaur, president and CEO of World Monuments Fund, explains why the Moon must be secured. “It turns out that on the Moon, you have 90 sites that can be considered historic. These are the landing sites of the first spacecraft to arrive on the Moon. We obviously think in particular of the Apollo 11 moon landing sites, with the first footprints of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.”
But it’s not just the moon landing marks that need to be saved, valuable objects can also be found on the Moon. “We have a golden olive branch, we have a disc on which were inscribed messages of peace and hope from more than 70 heads of state and international governments. So you actually have a lot of historical objects and remains on the Moon.”
The Moon essential to life on Earth
For the entire planet, the moon has always been part of the common landscape, this is also what must be regulated. “The Moon is part of what we call cultural landscapes or plays such an important role in so many cultures, in so many human imaginations all over the planet that we find that obviously, it is very important to preserve it in as a whole and therefore to organize“, reveals Bénédicte de Montlaur.
However, the increase in human passage on the lunar star should not harm the latter. The NGO World Monuments Fund does not want to prevent Man from returning to the Moon but rather to support and supervise these passages. “It is not at all a question of opposing it, but it is a question of supporting it. We believe that now is the time to have an international framework for the protection of historical objects which bear witness to one of the greatest advances of humanity. If you like, our organization deals with the preservation of the first human steps that can be found in archaeological sites in Africa as well as the first human steps on the Moon. And so what we are advocating for is the establishment of this international legal framework of protection because the Moon does not belong to anyone.”
