The treatment of movable and immovable heritage is markedly different. While movable objects are highly valued and carefully protected, their immovable equivalents are often under a serious cloud of threat. This peril is the result of global mismanagement, failure of governments to provide adequate funds for their maintenance, and lack of recognition by the public that these disappearing resources are assets of major value. Conservators of immovables face special ethical and practical concerns in their efforts to preserve cultural heritage within its context - depicted in this article as case histories from the World Monuments Watch list of endangered sites. The legal and procedural mechanisms that support this task are ineffectual in the face of rapid change. The field needs new methodologies that harness public appreciation of a site's 'sense of place' to guarantee its future.