As France’s most famous cathedral burned, people around the world paused, horrified by footage of the catastrophic fire. Now they’re breathing a sigh of relief with news that firefighters managed to save much of Notre Dame de Paris from the flames.

But the fire has ignited a longstanding debate about how best to protect cultural heritage sites—places that too often lack adequate defenses against a range of disasters.

“Many World Heritage properties do not have any established policy, plan or process for reducing risks associated with disasters,” UNESCO writes. “As a result, hundreds of sites are critically exposed to potential hazards.”

Those hazards, which range from fire to flood, climate change to conflict, have wiped out many of the world’s