Huatulco Travel

Watch listing provides an opportunity for sites and their nominators to raise public awareness, foster local participation, advance innovation and collaboration, and demonstrate effective solutions. The process also serves as a vehicle for requesting WMF assistance for select projects.

The list is assembled by an international panel of experts in archaeology, architecture, art history, and preservation (see accompanying list of 2010 panel members). For many historic sites, inclusion on the Watch is the best, and sometimes the only, hope for survival.

Since the program’s inception, more than 630 sites in 125 countries and territories have been included on eight Watch lists. Nearly half the sites featured on the Watch lists through 2008, representing 79 countries, have received WMF support totaling $50 million. These WMF funds have in turn leveraged an additional $150 million in assistance from other sources, demonstrating the effectiveness of the Watch program.

Success stories from the 2008 World Monuments Watch include Scott’s Hut, Antarctica; Falmouth Historic Town, Jamaica ; Pella Macedonia Tombs, Greece ; Capitanes Generales Palace, Guatemal Mavisbank House, United Kingdom ; and Florida Southern College, U.S.A. All have been protected.

A very recent success story is Tomo Port Town, in Fukuyama, Japan , which has also been protected. Watch-listed in 2002 and 2004, this small Meiji-era seaport on Japan ’s Inland Sea was threatened by the construction of a landfill and bridge that would have radically altered its waterfront and destroyed its historic character. The Watch listings helped to put pressure on the local government. The preservation of Tomo was then elevated to an international issue after a visit by WMF staff members with local officials and an on-site press conference drew broad attention. Dozens of institutions and organizations rallied to Tomo’s cause, and after a seven-year battle, Japanese courts have ruled that the bridge cannot be built.

One of the World Monuments Fund’s most effective tools, the World Monuments Watch is emblematic of the organization’s commitment to inspiring heritage stewardship, forging partnerships, and advancing conservation. In sponsoring the Watch program, WMF seeks to confront urgent challenges, highlight emerging issues and opportunities in the field, foster community engagement, and build capacities and constituencies for sustaining heritage protection in the long-term.